MODERN TRAVEL 



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Captain Haywood's Arab Guide, Mahomed-Ben-Kaid Kaddour 

This man, to whose skill and endurance he was indebted for safely ciossing some eight hundred 
miles of the Sahara wastes, was a typical, hardy desert wanderer. With a cupful of water and a 
handful of dates as his daily ration he would bear the scorching heat and suffocating sandstorms 
without showing any signs of fatigue. 



MODERN TRAVEL 

A RECORD OF EXPLORATION TRAVEL 

ADVENTURE & SPORT IN ALL PARTS 

OF THE V^ORLD DURING THE LAST 

FORTY YEARS DERIVED FROM 

PERSONAL ACCOUNTS BY 

THE TRAVELLERS 



BY 



NORMAN J. DAVIDSON, B.A. (Oxon.) 

Author of " Romance of the Spanish Main, ' 
*' Things Seen in Oxford," (£f c, &c. 



With 5J illustrations l^ lo maps 



PHILADELPHIA 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

LONDON : SEELEY, SERVICE & CO., Ltd. 
I92I 



k^^ 






CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

' PAGE 

Hunting Mighty Game . . . . . . .17 



CHAPTER II 

Hunting Might y Game — continued . . . . .26 

CHAPTER III 

Hunting Mighty Game — continued . . . . .31 

CHAPTER IV 
The Ice-bound Shores of Labrador ..... 37 

CHAPTER V 

The Savage Tribes of the Paraguayan Chaco ... 57 

CHAPTER VI 

The Savage Tribes of the Paraguayan Chaco — continued . 74 

CHAPTER VII 

The Savage Tribes of the Paraguayan Chaco — continued . 82 

CHAPTER VIII 
A Tramp across the Sahara ...... 94 

CHAPTER IX 

The Haunts of Sla^^ery . . . . . . .113 

CHAPTER X 

The Haunts of Slavery — continued ..... 128 

11 



12 CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XI 
The Haunts op Slavery — continued ..... 143 

CHAPTER XII 
A Wanderer in the Wilds op Aprica . . . .153 

CHAPTER XIII 
A Wanderer in the Wilds op Aprica — continued . .166 

CHAPTER XIV 

Madagascar : Nature's Museum . . . . .177 

CHAPTER ?:V 
Madagascar : Nature's Museum — continued . . .194 

CHAPTER XVI 
Madagascar : Nature's Museum — continued ... 207 

CHAPTER XVII 
A Land op Perpetual Rain . . . . . .219 

CHAPTER XVIII 
A Land op Perpetual Rain — continued .... 240 

CHAPTER XIX 
The Home of the Bird op Paradise .... 259 

CHAPTER XX 
The Home of the Bird op Paradise — continued . . 273 

CHAPTER XXI 
The Treacherous Tribes op Oceania .... 285 

CHAPTER XXII 
The Treacherous Tribes op Oceania — continued . . 303 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Captain Haywood's Arab Guide 


Frontispiece. ^ 


A Narwhal 


PAGE 

19 


Old Style of Gun and Harpoon 


. . . 20 


Right Whale Sperm and Finners 


. 24 V'^' 


Sighting the Gun 


. 25 


Modern Whale Gun and Harpoon 


. . 28 


FiNNER Whale being Cut Up 


. . . 28/ 


Tailing Up 


. 29 


Mouth of a F inner Whale 


. . . 3./ 


Head of a Sperm Showing Skull 


. 34 


Killers Attacking a Finner Whale 


. 34 V 


Comparison of Arctic and Antarctic Ice . 


. 36 


Seal-hunters 


. . . 38> 


A Snow House . . . . . 


. 42v/ 


Dogs Fishing 


. 48V' 



13 



14 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Harpoon and Bladder ....... 50 

The Eskimo Boy 52'^ 

" PuPHEK " Dance of the " Yanmana " Feast . . . 64 >/ 

Means of Obtaining Fire ....... 66 

A Crude Fiddle . . . . . . . . 67 

Wicker Fish traps . . . . . . . .68 

Besieged .......... 70Y 

A Lengua Woollen Blanket ...... 72 

Blanket Weaving . . . . . . . . 72^^ 

Lengua Pipe ......... 73 

/ 
Bottle-trunk Tree . . . . . . . . 80V 

Lengua Roadway Sign . . . . . . .80 

Rattle -SNAKE in the Grass ...... 80 

Rattle of the Rattle -snake . . . . . .80 

Indian Stalker . . . . . . . . . 88^*^ 

Medicine Man at Work . . . ... . 120v 

African Mimicry . . . . . . . . l36^V 

In the Wake of the Slave Raiders .... 13^' 

A Suspended Granary ...... . 152V 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 15 

PAGE / 

Typical Woman from the Tribe of Zappo Zap . . . 160'/ 



/ 



A Python 168 

Head-dress of Aemba Girl . . . . . . 172^ 

A Well-kept Village . . . . . . .176^ 

Old Village Gateway . . . . . . . i84iV 

Lace Plant ......... 188 

Water-carriers ......... 200V 

Chameleons ......... 202 

Madagascar Spider . . . . . . . .217 

Hill Natives of Dinawa ....... 232^ 

Plainsmen and Pygmies ....... 240V'' 

Pygmies making Fire (1, 2, 3) 248^ 

The Gurkha Jangbir ....... 2560^ 

) 

Spanning the Torrent ....... 256 

Two New Guinea Dandies 264'/ 

The Chief of Santa Cruz ...... 286 / 

Spearman of Ulawa, Malayta ...... 2%%y 

Malayta Spearman 296' 

Woman of Port Adam Returning from Market . . 304^ 



16 MAPS ( 'JLLu , ^ -kxJj^ 

Labrador .......... 3S* 

El Gran Chaco . . 56^ 

Paraguayan Chaco and Surroundestg States . . .56 

The Sahara 93^^ 

Central Africa . . . . . . . . . 112^' 

The Congo Basin . . . . . . . . 152^ 

Madagascar ......... 178v 

New Guinea, Dutch Section . . . . . . 218^^ 

New Guinea, Gulf of Papua ...... 260V 

Oceania 286'^ 



MODERN TRAVEL 

CHAPTER I 

HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 

Modern whaling is a new kind of whaling of only 
about fifty years' growth. It has grown up as the old 
styles went more or less out of practice. 

A few sailing ships still prosecute the old style of 
sperm whaling south of the line, but the Greenland 
Right whale hunting has been almost entirely given up 
within the last few years, because the Right whale, or 
whalebone whale, Balcena Mysticetus, had become 
scarce and so wary that it could not be killed in sufficient 
numbers to pay expenses. This Balcena, or whalebone 
whale, has no fin on its back. A large Right whale, or 
Bowhead, as it is sometimes called, has nearly a ton of 
whalebone in its mouth, which a few years ago was 
worth about £1500 per ton ; previously it was worth 
as much as £3000 per ton, so one good whale paid a 
trip. It was pursued from barques — sailing ships with 
auxiliary steam and screw, fifty men of a crew, and 
small boats, each manned with five men, with a harpoon 
gun in its bows, or merely a hand harpoon. When the 
harpoon was fired and fixed into the whale, it generally 
dived straight down, and when exhausted from want 
of air, came up and was despatched with lances or 
bombs from shoulder guns. These whales measured 
from forty to fifty-five feet. 

The sperm, or cachalot, is valuable for its spermacetti 
oil, and for ambergris, a product found once in hundreds 
D 17 



18 HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 

of whales caught. It is a toothed whale and carries no 
whalebone. 

But during the centuries these Right whales and 
sperm were being killed there were other larger and 
much more powerful whales, easily distinguished from 
the " Right whales " by the fin on their backs. These 
were to be found in all the oceans and were unattacked 
by men. They have only a little whalebone in their 
mouths, and were much too powerful to be killed by 
the old methods. 

Now we can kill these big fellows. Captain Svend 
Foyn, a Norwegian, mastered them by developing a 
new harpoon. A big harpoon fired from a cannon, a 
heavy cable and a small steamer combined made the 
finner whales man's prey. 

These Balcenoptera, averaging fifty to ninety feet, 
are fast swimmers and when harpooned go off at a 
great speed and require an immense harpoon to hold 
them, and when dead they sink, and their weight is 
sufficient to haul a string of small boats under the sea. 
To bring them to the surface a very powerful hawser is 
attached to the harpoon, and is wound up by a powerful 
steam winch on the ninety-foot steamer, which can be 
readily towed by the whale, but which is also sufficiently 
buoyant to pull them to the surface when they die and 
sink. 

In order that a whale may not break this five-inch 
hawser (or five and a half inches in circumference) the 
little vessel or steamer must be fairly light and handy, 
so as to be easily swung round. If the steamer were 
heavy and slow, the hawser, however thick, would 
snap, as it sometimes does even as it is when the whale 
puts on a sudden strain. 

In the old style the Greenland whale or sperm which 
floated when it was dead was pulled alongside the 
sailing vessel, when the whalebone was cut out of its 



HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 19 

mouth and stowed on board, as was also the fat or 
blubber, and the carcass was left to go adrift. 

But the " modern whales," as they may be called, 
when killed are towed ashore and pulled upon a slip at 
a station on land or alongside a great magazine ship 
anchored in some sheltered bay and are there cut up, 
whilst the little steam-whaleboat killer goes off in 
search of other whales. All parts of the body, at a fully 
equipped shore station, even the blood, of these finners 
are utilised for some purpose or another, the big bones 
and flesh being ground up into guano for the fertilisation 
of crops of all kinds, and the oil and small amount of 
whalebone are used for many other purposes. The oil 
is used for lubrication, soap, and by a new hardening 
process is made as clear as wax and is used for cooking, 
etc. Some of the whalebone fibre is used for stiffening 




A Narwhal 

silk in France, but every year or two some new use is 
being found for whale products. 

Though so large, these whales are not nearly so 
valuable as the Greenland whale ; still their numbers 
make up for their comparatively small value. 

Whale hunting as a hobby is big game sport on 
royal lines. A prey running up to one hundred feet in 
length and one hundred tons in weight is a bag to be 
proud of. Mr. Burn Murdoch is an enthusiastic and 
experienced whaler, though he is by profession a 
painter of pictures. From his designs the St. Ebba 
was built, a small but handy vessel of one hundred and 
ten feet over all, with twenty-two feet beam. She 
possessed both sails and auxiliary motor, and was 



20 HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 

fitted and equipped to chase the leviathan in any part 
of the world with the most modern appliances. 

The gun or swivel cannon for the bow weighs about 
two tons, and is swung in any direction by a pistol 
grip. The bollard on which it pivots is part of the iron 
structure of the bows and goes right down to the fore- 
foot. Its harpoons weigh one and a half hundred- 
weight : there are twenty-five of these, and forty 
smaller harpoons for sperm or cachalot or Right whale. 
On either side of the bows there is a smaller gun pivot- 
ing on a bollard to throw these harpoons. The difficulty 




I 

The Old Style of Gun and Harpoon 

A is wire strop or grummet running in slot in harpoon 
shaft. B is the "forego," a length of extra fine and 
strong line attached to harpoon. C shows the line going 
into the bottom of the boat. D, crutch turning in E, a 
bollard or timber-head. 

for the landsman shooting is, of course, in his sea-legs — 
he must be absolutely unconscious of them and of the 
vessel's movement, or of pitch and roll, and the wet 
of cold, bursting seas that may come over him at any 
time in the pursuit ; but, given good sea-legs and 
indifference to a wetting, and there is nothing in 
ordinary circumstances to prevent, say, a fairly quick 
pistol shot from killing his whale. A certain amount 
of strength and nerve is required for the final lancing 
from the pram or small boat, but that is seldom done 
nowadays, for a second or third harpoon is usually 
resorted to, as being more effective and less risky. 



HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 21 

It was in the North Sea that the first whale of this 
cruise was sighted. There came one day from the crow's- 
nest the welcome cry of " A blast ! " and the response 
from the bridge : " How far ? " They were bowling 
south with a blustering, following wind, really too 
rough for whaling, for the sea made the ship yaw this 
way and that. However, there was no choice ; there 
was half a chance and it was not to be missed. It did 
not turn out to be a long chase ; it was a solitary finner 
and they swung after his first blow a mile to port and 
at his third blow were within a quarter of a mile. Then 
he sounded, and in twenty minutes came up again and 
blew a twenty-foot blast of steam into the bright windy 
air. Again they pursued and were nearly in shot at his 
second blast, and were following him north against the 
sea with the foam coming splendidly over at every dive, 
making one fairly gasp with excitement and cold. 
They were all wrong at the third rise ; a mile out and 
very disappointed; then, to their astonishment, three 
minutes after appeared a blast to leeward, and the 
huge, plum-coloured shoulders of a leviathan coming 
right across the course — the same whale or another 
perhaps. A turn of the engine then " Slowly," and 
they surged ahead, rising and falling on the far too big 
waves. Then a strange and rare sight came ; owing 
to the position of the sun, the light shone right into the 
banks of waves, and inside one and along it, was 
obtained a splendid full-length view of the whale under 
the greeny water looking almost yellow and white. 
Only on very few occasions did Burn Murdoch obtain 
such a complete view of a whale, when looking down 
on one, but in this case it was a complete side view. 
Up they rose in a thirty-foot surge, and the top of his 
dark shiny head appeared, up rushed the blast, and 
over went his enormous back. As they plunged down 
a wave its back showed at its highest, and the trigger 



22 HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 

was pulled, aiming almost uphill as the vessel plunged 
its bows under. It was a longer shot than usual, about 
forty yards and in rougher weather, and the harpoon 
plunged in at the centre of the target ! What a boom 
and whirl of rope and smoke, and what a glorious 
moment of suspense and then intense satisfaction 
when the great line tautened up and began to run — 
some excuse for a wave of the cap. 

But the line is suddenly slack. There was no miss — 
but they have lost him, somehow or other ! 

At last the harpoon comes on board — the flanges 
have never opened ! — there is flesh on them, and a foot 
up the shaft — two and a half feet it had entered, and 
yet came out ! possibly the marlin round the flanges 
was too strong to allow of them spreading. Possibly the 
explosive point made too great a hole and allowed the 
flanges to miss their anchoring hold. It was bad luck. 

The solitary finner disappeared, and the hunt was 
kept up for hours towards heavy purple clouds in the 
south-west, and the sea seemed deserted as before, till 
towards six o'clock they saw a blow. 

In half an hour the vessel was amongst a school of 
large whales ! and then began the most spectacular 
whale hunt they had ever seen. For two and a half 
days the ocean had been almost blank and lifeless, 
then, without rhyme or reason, it was brimming with 
life ! An indigo bank of cloud there was for back- 
ground, a complete vivid rainbow against that — 
beneath it the swelling seas, dark green with purple 
lights and white foam, with here and there whales' 
white blasts catching the western sun from a score or 
fifty enormous finners. In every direction were dolphins 
with yellow and white stripes, and porpoises spurting 
water up like cannon shots as they dived ; overhead 
were petrels and dark skuas. The whales' plum-coloured 
backs caught the western light and reflected the sky on 



HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 23 

their upper surface in tints of lavender as they rose, 
glittering and powerful, in green and white foaming 
water, in groups of three or four surging along beside 
each other, east and west, sending up mighty jets of 
steam, to be carried away in the wind. 

The whales were feeding, but travelling so fast that 
they could not come up with them, so they cut across 
their course, and dozens of times thought they were 
going to get their chance. Then other bigger whales 
crossed, and they gave up the first lot and went plunging 
after the others, throwing up grand showers of foam 
over the bows. 

For several hours they chased in this wonderful piece 
of sea, so brimful of life, but the whales dodged about at 
a most unusual rate ; possibly their rapidity of motion 
was caused by the host of dolphins and porpoises that 
leapt alongside them and crossed their course. 

Often they were close to a whale but not in such a 
position as to be able to swing the gun towards it. For 
some time a huge fellow surged close alongside within 
one or two feet of the starboard beam. 

At about ten o'clock the chance came — the vessel 
crashed down from a high sea almost on top of a whale 
as it rose unexpectedly, but it was too close, the gun 
could not be depressed enough to get the foresight on, 
but the next rise, the moment after its blast they were 
high in air and let drive as they came down and were 
fast and sure. 

It is difficult to describe the grand rush of a huge 
whale or that fractional pause of uncertainty after the 
boom and smoke and flame and the whirl of great rope. 
It is heart-stopping, almost solemn. One watches the 
seething black boil where the whale has gone down, 
with small flecks of scarlet in it, and the great cable 
fading down into the depths, and the gun-wads smoking 
on the water. Then off goes the cable to right or left ! 



24 HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 

Sixty to seventy miles an hour, cutting the water into 
foam, and the vessel swinging into the course of the 
whale. Before going fairly in tow on this occasion, an 
unusual thing happened. The whale's huge head, 
immediately after it sounded, suddenly shot up twenty 
yards in front of the bows, twenty feet in the air, and 
went as quickly down. Had it touched the vessel they 
would have had quick work to get into their boat, and 
the little steamer would have made a deep-sea sounding. 

About three hundred and sixty fathoms ran out 
before they saw further sign ; running over the two 
ringing barrels of the strong steam winch, five times 
round each barrel with the brake such as one sees on 
a railway engine wheel hard down and burning ; then 
foam appeared a quarter of a mile in front, and the 
whale's flippers, then the mighty flukes of its enormous 
tail, slowly threshing the sea into white. To right and 
left it travelled, towing the vessel ahead whilst the 
engine reversed at eight knots. But not for long. 
They managed to wind up some line and got the gun 
loaded again, thinking it might take another harpoon to 
stop it, for lancing from the small boat in such a heavy 
sea would have been too dangerous, even if possible. 

The fight was short. It was again harpooned and 
brought alongside ; a weight and line were thrown 
over its tail ; a heavy chain was shackled round above 
the tail and hauled by the steam winch to the port bow 
beside the anchor davit, then, with the huge body with 
its lovely white corded underside above water surging 
alongside, they steamed ahead. It seemed to be about 
seventy feet and would probably weigh about seventy 
tons, and it made the vessel lie well over to port. To 
float it a little higher out of the water, a pointed tube 
with holes in its side was driven through the white kid 
skin, and air and steam blown in. 

No two whale hunts are alike ; one trip may result 







Right Whales and Sperm up to 6o Feet, Finners up to iio Feet 

1. Greenland Right whale, Balcena Mysiici-tus, up to 60 feet in length, generally found near 
Arctic ice. The smaller whalebone whale of the Atlantic and Southern oceans is somewhat 
similar in shape ; it runs to 50 feet ; shows tail as it dives ; has no fin on back. It is called the 
Nordcapper or Biscayensis and Anstralis. 

2. The Sperm or Cachalot, Pkyseter MacrocepJtaliis. A toothed whale 50 to 60 feet ; shows 
tail when it dives ; sometimes breaches, i.e. leaps several times in succession as it travels ; blast 
low and projected forward. 

3. Seihvale, Bahenoptera Borealis, 40 to 50 feet ; blast about 10 feet ; does not usually lift 
tail out of water before final dive ; has fin on back, is therefore a " finner." 

4._ Fin whale, Balcenoptera IVhisculns, up to 75 feet. The Blue whale, BaUrnopteraSilybaldii, 
is similar, with smaller fin on back ; both make blasts about 18 feet. The Blue whale in 
Southern seas has been killed up to 110 feet. 



HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 



25 



in a " clean ship " and empty bunkers, the next in 
two or even three whales in a couple of days. 

A whale comes to the surface, blows and takes in 
breath several times, just going below surface between 
each blast. After it feels refreshed it goes below on its 
business for a dive of, say, twenty minutes or half an 
hour, and may appear any distance from the spot it 
went down at. In this last dive it raises the after part 
of its body with a slow elevation, a sort of sad farewell 
to the hunter. Certain whales, such as the sperm and 
narwhal, and Right whales, lift the whole tail out, but 
others, such as the finners, hunted off Shetland, only 
show the ridge in front of the tail ; and seldom show 
their tails or flukes until they are harpooned. 

The actual firing and hitting a whale any good pistol- 
shot can do. But manoeuvring the vessel, stalking the 
whale, as it were, needs a good deal of experience, and 
it goes without saying one must have perfect sea-legs ; 
indeed, that is perhaps the greatest difficulty. It takes 
a great deal of experience to be unconscious, when there 
is a roll on, of any effort to balance oneself, which is, 
of course, absolutely essential for a successful shot. 




Sighting the Gun 



CHAPTER II 

HUNTING MIGHTY GAME (continued) 

Off Fiugga, the most northerly point of Britain's 
possessions, the weather was simply beastly ; in an 
intensely blue sea, with immense silky rollers, it might 
have been in the North-East Trades. It was just what 
was to be expected ; thirty to forty miles north of the 
islands you strike sun and clear sky, then go west fifty 
miles and you come up against a curtain of rain. 

They are sloping along half-speed north-easterly over 
a splendid silky swell, all eyes sweeping the horizon. 
The boy at the wheel is the first to spot a blow, to which 
the whaler is promptly swung, and immediately after, 
on the horizon, the faintest possible suggestion of a 
blow is discovered, a minute cloud hardly enough to 
swear by, as big as the tip of a child's little finger. It 
fades away and they are sure it is the blow of some 
kind of whale, and the boy rings up the engine-room 
and, grinning, shouts down the tube : " Nord Capper, 
full speed ! " This to make the stokers lay on, for a 
Nord Capper means £l apiece bounty money to each 
of the crew of ten men. 

The hunt is begun ; seven miles towards the first 
blow there is a shout from the look-out in the crow's- 
nest, and big spouts are seen within a mile from the 
left. So the skipper goes forward to his beloved swivel 
gun or cannon, in his weathered green jacket, a 
picturesque figure against the immense blue silky, 
sunny swell. 

Five minutes the whale stays down, then comes up 
to starboard. " How many were there ? " says the 

26 



HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 27 

skipper to the look-out in the crow's-nest. " Two big 
id a calf." Eight minutes they stay down and appear 
lalf a mile to starboard ; there is the lovely silence of a 
i sailing ship as they wait with the engines stopped, 
[studying fleecy clouds and the silky blue stripe their 
track has left on the swell. It is this rapid contrast 
that gives the charm to whaling — this morning, in hail 
and black-eyed sea, a blurred sea and landscape of 
beaten cliffs and capes ; this afternoon a wide horizon, 
and not a ship in sight, the colour and width of it ! 
But here he is ! He came up half a mile to port — 
appeared two or three times, at a few seconds' interval, 
then " tailed up," that slow, farewell turn over of the 
after part of the body as it goes down for a deep dive ; 
and in ten minutes he appears a mile to north-west. 
There he is half a mile to east. Within two hundred 
yards, a little to port, the blue sky is reflected on wet 
plum-coloured back . . . within fifty yards when he 
made his last dive, the gun is swung . . . there it is ! at 
the second rise under the bow — bang ! 

A splendid shot ! — away goes the line at seventy miles 
the hour and the ship is hauled quickly round, and 
taken in tow eight miles an hour and the engines going 
eight miles astern, if that is not exhilarating ! 

The cook and engineer are at the winch brakes — 
there is a thin furrow of Union Jack colours, red blood, 
white foam in the blue of ocean — and the line still whirl- 
ing out at intervals. They " fish fine," the casting line 
is sixty fathoms, the rope four and a half inches in cir- 
cumference, the finest Italian hemp procurable, with a 
backing of two thousand one hundred and sixty-six 
feet, five and half inches rope to port, and the same to 
starboard, a total of eight thousand six hundred and 
twenty feet. The line passes five times round the two 
barrels of a sixty-five horse-power winch. It is " fine 
tackle " compared to the seventy or eighty ton fighting 



28 HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 

finner that they are playing. There is not much line 
out, only about one thousand five hundred feet — now 
they go more slowly in tow. It was a well-placed shot 
... a few Mother Carey chickens come and some fulmar 
petrels, later a solan goose ! — there is a little blood 
now in its feeble blast, it thrashes with its tail — more 
line going out — they go astern to drown it. The nose 
appears, exactly the colour of a salmon at a distance — 
it turns over — the white ribbed underside up — now it 
is dead and it sinks. The line is rove over a large iron 
snatch-block^ up the mast and the steam winch begins 
to turn slowly, raising the whale from the depths ; a 
slow, steady, funereal clank ; a great chain is manoeuvred 
round the tail and it is hauled up to the side of the bow 
by the winch ; getting the tail chained up to the bow 
is a complicated, heavy bit of seaman's work. A mag- 
nificent and beautiful thing is the tail in colour and 
form ; so wide and big and yet so delicate in design 
and finish and plum-like colour, and so immensely 
strong. The body swings alongside, the head reaches 
the stern quarters, the line is cut clear of the harpoons 
in its body. Two hours after they first sighted the 
whale, it is played and killed. After blowing it up 
they are off for a second whale. 

Blowing up, as already described, is putting a hollow 
lance into whale and blowing through it air and steam, 
which makes the body slightly more buoyant and more 
easy to tow. 

Another whale is sighted. Meantime the skipper has 
been cleaning out the whale gun on the bows with tow 
and cleaning rod, and the charge is put in, and the 
india-rubber wad driven home on top of three hundred 

1 This snatch-block hangs on a wire rope that passes over a sheaf and 
leads down to the hold, where it is attached to an enormously strong 
steel spiral spring. This makes a give-and-take action when hauling up 
the dead whale from the depths to counteract the jar on line and donkey- 
engine that comes from the rise and fall of the steamer on the sea. 




Modern Whale Gun and Harpoon 

Ready for firing. 




■^^- 



'*-•¥?; ap»!i; ^ 



A Finner Whale Being Cut Up 

Commencing to cut strips of the blubber with a flensing knife. The blubber is being pulled 
away as the man cuts bj' a chain and steam winch. 



HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 29 

and eighty-five grammes of black powder. The second 
fine from the port side of the hold is made ready, and 
a new harpoon, one and a half hundredweights, slung 
from the hold. The line is spliced to the twisted wire 
grummet or ring that travels in a slot in the shaft of 
the harpoon, which is rammed into the gun so that 
line and ring hang from the shaft at the muzzle of the 
gun. Getting this done and putting chains and ropes 
in order takes time, and a considerable amount of work 
for five men. 

He has screwed on the explosive point to the harpoon 
(over the time fuse), swung round the gun, and they^'are 
off in pursuit of a whale just sighted. He has appeared 




Tailing Up 

several times, made two or three handsome blasts and 
gone down " tail up," and they followed, as they 
thought, in the direction he took, but he always ap- 
peared right off the track. The term " tail up " is not 
quite accurate here ; the expression really means the 
whole tail going into air as the whale does down for a 
long dive. In the case of these northern finners it is 
generally only the part of the back next to the tail that 
is raised, not the flukes, and this rising tells that the 
whale intends to go down deep for twenty minutes or 
half an hour. 

Some whales " tail up " before a long dive ; some 
more, some less ; some finners only do this A dive after 



30 HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 

showing several times and blasting, B. But these 
narwhals show their dumpy feeble tail, C, as also does 
the sperm, D, before the long dive. The rorquales' 
tails are magnificent appendages, and it is often thrown 
clear of the sea when such a whale is " fast " or har- 
pooned, E. The sperm can make a big swipe with his 
tail ; it is apparently more elastic in the spine than the 
finner. To see a sperm breaching is a fine sight ; he 
runs fast along the surface, every second leaping clear 
out, or at least going, as it were, on his tail, and thumps 
down with a crash of spray. 



CHAPTER III 

HUNTING MIGHTY GAME (continued) 

A COOL, sunny morning, with rolling glassy grey swell 
and warmer. A large finner is towing the vessel. It 
has taken five hundred yards out with several rapid 
rushes of forty to fifty miles an hour, and there is a 
smell of the burning wood of the breaks ; it is very 
quiet. The whale blows occasionally and turns the 
swell into white and red ; it looks as if it must be 
lanced from the small boat, or another harpoon got in. 
It was a most interesting chase ; five monsters blowing 
half a mile apart seemed quite a crowd. They had got 
in between two, feeding, and after an hour's hunt alto- 
gether, one rose a few yards to starboard. You could 
see down its blow-hole, then its great back came out, 
and into its last ribs the harpoon went, and at the 
wheel all were in smoke and tow. The smoke cleared 
and the wads lay in the swelling vortex the monster 
left, and then the line rushed ! 

But this whale will not die, it must be lanced ; an 
eighteen-foot spear is the lance — half iron, half wood. 
The pram is swung out — dropped half on top of the 
dead whale, a previous capture, and over the glassy 
rollers goes the boat at a good pace ; the whale is six 
hundred yards away or more and wandering from left 
to right, and ahead, in the deep swell, it seems as if it 
would be a long business to get into reach. The stern 
is backed in and the spear goes in five feet and is twisted 
out of hand, and the vast body rolls over, the tail rises 
up and up and comes down in a sea of foam. They pull 
clear, back in again at the next rise and draw the spear 

81 



32 HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 

all bent, straighten it, and one more thrust finishes the 
business and the whale spouts red and dies. 

Whales seem to be such good beasts, and have such 
kind brown eyes — nothing of the fish in them, and their 
colouring is that of all the sea ; their backs are grey- 
black to dove-colour, reflecting the blue of the sky, and 
the white of their underside is like the white of a kid 
glove with the faintest pink beneath, so white it makes 
the sea-foam look grey as it washes across it to and fro, 
and the white changes to emerald green in the depths 
to the blue-green of an iceberg's foot. It is strange 
that this skin should be so extremely delicate in such a 
large animal ; it is too thin to be used as leather. 

Further south a grey, blunt-headed whale rose almost 
in front, blew his blast and went under for a few yards 
and rose again dead in front ; higher and higher his 
back rose, then Bang ! — and he was fast and the line 
rattling out. 

A great surge followed as the whale went down, and 
out went the five-inch rope — for but a short distance, 
though it was a heavy rope, spun for far more powerful 
prey than the sperm or cachalot, and he was soon 
reeled in, and a long lance ended the valuable animal's 
troubles. 

There was no ambergris in this one. It disgorged 
several cuttle-fish but they were not lost, for the sharks 
soon came round, and nothing comes amiss to them. 

Ambergris is found sometimes in a sperm's intestine, 
sometimes thrown from the whale into sea. It is used 
as the basis of scents. Its selling price is about one 
hundred shillings per ounce. A whaler a short time ago 
secured some from one whale, and sold it for £20,000. 

All afternoon until late at night was occupied in 
cutting up the whale. First of all a cut was made 
round its shoulder and fin, or hand — for a whale has 
bones like those of a hand inside the fibrous fin. In 



HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 38 

fact, the whale's anatomy is similar to that of a land 
animal, not like that of fish. The hip bone and thigh 
are only floating rudimentary bones. 

A round hole was cut through the blubber, round the 
fin or arm, and a strop or loop of rope passed through 
from the under side of the blubber and pulled taut on 
to a sort of button of oak called a toggle on the outside 
surface of skin. Then, with the winch's hook and chain 
hooked on to the strop, by steam power was gradually 
raised a strip of blubber about two feet in width and of 
about eight inches in depth off the whale, as the body 
slowly revolved in the water, cutting it clear of the 
flesh with the flensing blades from the dory or flat- 
bottomed boat. 

The head and tail parts were treated separately. 
Finner whales on a landing-stage on shore are stripped 
or flensed from end to end with an instrument like a 
sabre on a long shaft, but if one has to be stripped or 
flensed at sea, it has to be treated in the same way as 
this sperm whale. 

At early dawn work was recommenced at the whale ; 
and case, junk, and all will be on board before mid- 
day meal. 

This case or long forehead of sponge-like spermaceti 
oil is a marvel, it is only covered with thin soft blubber 
skin. 

The mass of fibrous tissue is even fuller of liquid oil 
than a bath sponge could be full of water. Whilst it 
was still warm it was pumped out with flexible steel 
pipes, but it condensed and choked the pipe. But 
when it grew colder it could be handled. 

The sperm or cachalot whale's head is very peculiar. 
It has teeth in lower jaw and a small tongue. All the 
part forward of the dotted line, which represents the 
skull of the head, is a mass of fibrous oil. When you 
cut through the skin you can bail it out with pitchers 



34 HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 

or pump it out till it gets too cold, after which you do 
not know whether to lift it in your hands or in a bucket. 
It is beautifully clear. No one knows why it has this 
extraordinary spongy fore-part to its head. This sperm 
oil is chemically different from the oil of other whales ; 
it is more of the nature of a wax ; the other whales are 
of a fatty nature. It makes the finest lubricant for 
modern machinery. 

The blow hole is on left side of this case the blow 
pipe from lungs going through it. And the jet of steam 
is thrown up two or three feet and forward, so a sperm's 
blast is easily distinguished from that of the finner, 



Head of a Sperm Showing Skull 

which is bigger and straight up, say to twenty or 
thirty feet, or possibly forty feet, in the case of a large 
Blue whale. 

The plan adopted in this case differs from the most 
recent whalers ; they either tow their prey ashore or 
into harbour alongside great floating ship factories of 
several thousand tons, to be cut up and boiled down. 
Here it was cut up at sea and the blubber taken on 
board, and melted or cooked. 

The deck is now like a marble quarry, with great 
white chunks of fat in the moonlight, and dusky figures 
cutting these into blocks of about a foot square to go 
into the two pots. 

Steam is let into them at one hundred and sixty 



HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 35 

pounds' pressure, and the cooker has to watch two taps 
running from these, each now pouring out beautifully 
fine sperm oil. He stands by the two pots on either 
side of the ship amidships, one to port, one to starboard ; 
now and then he dips a bright tin ladle into the oil that 
keeps running out into an open tank, and sniffs at it, 
and pours it back, examining its colour, which is like 
pale sherry. 

There is no smell actually about the cooking process 
till the water that is formed in the pots by the con- 
densing steam has to be blown out of the bottoms of 
the pots. Then the blue sea gets a yellow scum and the 
atmosphere is pervaded far and near with the smell of 
beef-tea. 

The narwhal of the Arctic seas feeds on small cuttle- 
fish, only about a few inches across the spread of their 
tentacles, and red prawns or shrimps. But the cachalot 
or sperm whale of the warm seas kills very large cuttle- 
fish. Large circular marks in their backs, something 
like Burmese writing magnified, look as if they had been 
caused by the sucker on the tentacles of enormous 
cuttle-fish, and wandering grooves over their sides 
suggest that the parrot-like beak of the cuttle-fish has 
made its mark. The contents of the stomach of many 
of the largest whales in the world, Balcenoptera Sihaldi 
(Blue) and Balcenoptera Musculus (Finner), which are 
killed nowadays, consist almost entirely of small shrimps, 
about one-quarter of the size of the common shrimp. 

The food of the whale that used to be more common, 
the Right whale, Balcena Mysticetus, is about the size 
of barleycorns and looks rather like sago with a brownish 
tint. The whale takes a mouthful of these, plus water, 
and squeezes the water through the blades of whalebone 
round the edge of its mouth, each of which has a fringe 
of hairs on the inside. These hairs, interwoven, make a 
surface to the palate like that of a coconut mat, which 



36 



HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 



makes a perfect strainer. Then the whale swallows the 
mass of minute crustaceans that is left on its tongue 
and palate. The tongue is an immense floppy plum- 
coloured thing like a deflated balloon. 




A Comparison of Arctic and Antarctic Ice 



[The information contained in the preceding chapters 
has been derived from Mr. W. G. Burn Murdoch's book, 
Modern Whaling, by kind permission of the author.] 



CHAPTER IV 

THE ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 

It was in 1771 that the missionaries of the Moravian 
Church went to Labrador. Before that time very little 
was known about the Eskimo people. Vessels seldom 
braved the stormy waters of Labrador, or, if they did, 
they ventured but little among the numberless rocks 
and islands that fringe the mainland. So it came about 
that the Eskimos were seldom seen ; and the few reports 
that were brought to the civilised world by returning 
fisher crews described them as a totally savage and 
uncultured people. They seem to have deserved the 
name ; for the first men who landed from the mission 
ships were killed. 

Doctor Hutton's first impression of the land was a 
dispiriting one. There was a chilling mist on the water, 
and through it he could dimly see a dull and sullen 
coast-line, and hear the ponderous thud of the sea as it 
beat upon the rocky wall. And when he went ashore 
and saw the stunted brushwood and the dwarfed and 
twisted trees all dripping with moisture, and met the 
hulking sledge-dogs, bedraggled and forlorn, wandering 
in aimless fashion among the huts, the idea of desola- 
tion was complete. But the next day brought a different 
picture. The summer sun shone brightly on the moss- 
grown huts that strewed the hill-side ; brisk, black- 
haired little people were running to and fro, bustling 
to help at the unloading of the ship ; there was an air 
of life and brightness about the scene. He caught 
some of the glamour of Labrador ; he saw something 
of the ch^rm of this lonely land, a charm that in som^ 

37 




c S 



biO& 






ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 39 

strange fashion makes people love it, that makes old 
residents who have left it pine to return, that makes 
even the casual visitor vow to come again. 

There was a wealth of wild flowers ; they were every- 
where, rearing their heads among the unpromising 
stones, and blooming in profusion amid the thick moss 
that carpeted the ground — delicate harebells, tall fox- 
gloves, scentless violets, yellow dandelions, besides 
other and unknown varieties. Butterflies were flitting 
to and fro ; grasshoppers were leaping about ; mice 
and lemmings darted under the stones, bristling and 
squealing : it seemed such a summer land ! So different 
can two impressions be. 

The following year Dr. Hutton visited Labrador again, 
but this time to stay, for he had come back to the land 
to make his home at Okak, and to plant a hospital there 
among the Eskimos. It was October when he arrived, 
and the land was all covered with hard snow, and the 
beach was crusted with a coating of ice that crackled 
and boomed as the tides lifted it and left it. The sea 
had a queer haze over it ; it looked exactly as if the 
water were getting ready to boil, and the vapour was 
gently drifting with the wind ; the sea was beginning 
to freeze, and the smoke was a sign that the ice would 
soon cover it. But day after day the wind kept the 
water constantly tossing, and gave it no chance to set. 
At length a calm night came, and in the morning there 
was ice. It seemed strange to look over a great grey 
plain instead of the white-capped waves, and the 
absence of all sound created quite an eerie feeling. 
With the freezing of the sea the Labrador winter begins. 

Dr. Hutton was advised to adopt native dress, and 
was accordingly introduced to the local " tailor," a 
square-faced, brisk little Eskimo woman who eyed him 
critically, taking mental notes the while, and after a 
few days turned up again with a bundle containing a 



40 ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 

" dicky " (blanket smock) and a complete suit of seal- 
skins just like those the Eskimos wear. The method 
of measuring for boots was similar to that adopted by 
the tailor, for the boot-maker (again a woman) gazed 
at his feet, trotted away and eventually produced as 
comfortable a pair of boots as he ever possessed. When- 
ever Dr. Button went into an Eskimo house he found the 
women and girls chewing something. He imagined at 
first that they were eating or chewing reindeer ears 
(which they cut up into a sort of native chewing gum) ; 
but no, they were softening the edges of the boot- 
leather for the needle. An Eskimo boot is made in 
only three pieces — the legging, the tongue or instep, 
and the turned-up, trough-like sole ; the boot-maker 
cuts them out and hands them round to be chewed. 
The chewing of boot-leather is woman's work from 
childhood to old age. 

With the freezing of the sea there begins the real 
Labrador cold, but oddly enough it does not feel so very 
cold ; coming from the interior it is dry, keen and 
bracing, lacking some of the sting of the sea wind. 
One learns to watch one's neighbour's nose ; lips stiffen 
with icicles ; hands cannot bear to be without gloves 
for a single moment. Spring-time provides for the 
children the most exciting game of the whole year, 
when the ice breaks, and the tides which come oozing 
up the beach bring great pans and little flat pieces 
floating shorewards. These make capital rafts, and 
boys in twos and threes paddle themselves along with 
their hands or punt about by means of poles. Children 
at an early age are adepts with oar or paddle, and 
seldom come to grief ; yet, curiously enough, very few 
Eskimos can swim. 

One of the most attractive qualities of the Eskimos 
is their simplicity. They have the gift of graphic and 
guent speech, awd ^m 4eisc|'ibe their doings w|th thrilling 



ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 41 

gestures and telling emphasis when they choose. But 
they must get warmed to their subject ; a mere question 
will not set them going. And they can talk furiously. 
They are very excitable, and fly into a passion over a 
trifle ; but though they are quickly aroused, they are 
just as easily appeased. Family feuds or long-drawn 
quarrels are rare. They are a hard-working people, 
but they have their lazy side ; they are apt to dawdle 
over work to which they are not accustomed. At one 
time they were very skilful at carving ivory walrus 
tusks ; but as the animals were driven northwards 
such tusks as could be secured were required for har- 
poons ; there was, too, but a small market for the 
articles, and so the art died out. 

The Eskimos cannot be held up as a cleanly race ; 
they are still far behind true civilisation in habits of 
cleanliness and sanitation. But the nature of their work 
must be taken into consideration. In the north where 
no trees grow, and seal-oil lamps provide light and a 
meagre tinge of warmth for the huts, the people look 
dirty. The huts are small, and all the work of skinning 
and dressing the seals must be done in them because 
out of doors everything freezes as hard as stone ; and 
so the work-a-day clothes are black and shiny with 
oil. The Eskimos wear out fast ; after fifty a man begins 
to decline, and few live long after sixty. 

As soon as the winter was fairly established Dr. 
Hutton began to think of visiting some of the other 
stations by sledge, and with this idea in view placed 
the work of constructing the vehicle in the hands of 
two experienced natives, Jerry and Julius. They 
succeeded in getting an enormous tree stem from the 
woods, hauling it for many miles across the snow by 
means of dogs. Its age might truthfully be reckoned 
by centuries, for the growth of trees in Labrador is 
exceedingly slow, and the wood requires no seasoning. 



42 ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 

The trunk was sawn into planks, the workshop consist- 
ing of two big blocks of frozen snow in the open air. 
The sledge was sixteen feet long, and two and a half 
feet broad. It had twenty-six cross-pieces, and never a 
nail did they use ; thongs of seal-skin bound the pieces 
together. They set the runners on the blocks, and 
bored holes for the binding ; then stood them up a 
couple of feet apart and bound the cross-pieces to 
them, first the front and back ones, then the middle 
one, and then the others to fill up the spaces. There 
was a gentle upward curve from back to front to make 
the sledge rise better to the snowdrifts, and the runners 
were not set quite upright, but splayed slightly out- 
wards to keep the sledge from slipping sideways ; and 
every bit of the work was done with the neatness and 
exactness that the most skilled of carpenters might 
envy. 

The runners were shod with strips of iron, a style 
that has quite ousted the old plan of shoeing with bone 
or mud. But further north mud is still used ; clay and 
moss are mixed with water, and it is plastered on hot. 
It freezes instantly, and must then be scrubbed to 
smoothness. It is a cheap method, but brittle. A 
journey to Hebron was decided on for the trial trip, 
and a start was made at five o'clock in the morning in 
pitchy darkness. At a signal Jerry sprinted along the 
track, and the dogs went racing after him. The line 
tightened with a jerk, and the sledge started with a 
bound that nearly threw the Doctor off. Sledge dogs, 
unless they are very tired, are always eager to be on 
the move, and are in such a hurry ^that they try to 
take short cuts of their own, leaping over great snow- 
drifts and frantically straining to climb huge hummocks 
of ice. 

After travelling for two hours a halt was called to 
disentangle the dogs, which by continual crossing over 







3 O 



V OS 



w 

CO 

o 

^ si' 

O -^ " 

:^ = — 

< l-^ 

1^ bc'S 



ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 43 

had plaited their traces together like the strings of a 
maypole. Dr. Hutton drank some warm coffee, but the 
drivers contented themselves with water and a lump of 
frozen seal meat. Another halt was called at noon to 
ice the runners of the sledge. This was effected by 
squirting water from the mouth over them, when it 
instantly formed a glass-like coating. 

Hebron appeared to be a veritable land of dogs ; the 
place swarmed with them. By daytime it was not so 
bad, for one could avoid treading on the sleeping 
brutes, though it was not very comfortable to be 
persistently followed by a dozen or more of the wolfish- 
looking creatures ; but by night it was awful. The 
dogs sang and snarled and fought and held meetings of 
their own, and prowled about in gangs in the moon- 
light, furtive and terrible. Sledge dogs are ravenously 
hungry when feeding-time comes, and an ordinary 
team can easily polish off the carcase of a seal, but 
feeding-time comes only three or four times a week. 

The next visit to Hebron was in more dispiriting 
circumstances, for an urgent message came to Okak 
for medical help, as an epidemic of a serious nature had 
broken out. The morning was bleak and pitchy black, 
and although the thermometer registered only twenty 
degrees of frost the cold was bitter in the extreme. 
So dark was it that only a faint glimmer of the snow 
on which the sledge was running could be seen. It 
was marvellous how drivers and dogs were able to nose 
their way across a trackless waste. Their progress 
was brought to a full stop by a bay which they must 
cross, but the ice was heaving and groaning all round ; 
there seemed to be no other course than to turn back. 
But one of the drivers remembered a track over the 
headland. On the left the wall of rock rose steep ; 
on the right the black water churned and tumbled 
and ground the floating pans of ice together ; under 



44 ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 

foot the thick sea-ice rocked and heaved with the force 
of the waves, and here and there the water came 
swilhng over. The sledge raced along until it reached 
the place leading on to the headland. At this spot 
the ice was broken away from the rock, and was rising 
and falling with the swell. One moment it came 
groaning up to the level of the land ; the next, it sank 
away and left a leap of several feet. The dogs went 
scrambling over, glad to get on to something firm, but 
the drivers held the sledge back until the ice began to 
rise, and then with a yell they started the dogs again 
and bumped across the track just as it came up level ; 
a second too soon or too late would have meant smash- 
ing the front of the sledge to splinters. It seemed a 
long way over the headland, up hill and down and 
always through soft snow ; and all the morning the 
little driver trotted on knee deep in snow, lifting his feet 
high to run the more easily, and keeping the same steady 
pace, hour after hour, with the dogs hard at his heels. 

Dr. Hutton was expatiating on the advantages of 
sitting in a travelling box in contradiction to his 
missionary companion who advocated the balancing 
oneself on it like the Eskimos, and was lolling in fancied 
security and comfort when a sudden jar sent box and 
occupant into the soft snow, where he remained sticking 
head downwards, with futile legs waving in the air. 
The drivers pulled him out and set him right end up ; 
and there he sat, scraping the freezing snow out of his 
neck, ears and hair, while everyone laughed. Hebron 
was reached without further mishap. Typhus had 
broken out, and four patients were already dead. 
Effective means were taken to stamp it out, and Dr. 
Hutton returned to Okak, making the same journey 
across the headland they had traversed before. 

On his next journey to Hebron the morning seemed 
^n ideal on^ fpr travelling, but wbep they reached the 



ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 45 

half-way point a small cloud appeared drifting rapidly 
from the north. This developed into a heavy grey wall 
coming tearing along to meet them ; it was the northern 
storm. Even through the thick seal-skins the wind 
cut bitterly. A wall of frozen snow beat against them, 
a taut line stretching away to where the dogs were lost 
to sight in the drift. But fortunately a hut was at hand, 
where they took shelter. 

The " mauja " or soft snow makes traveUing most 
trying. In it the dogs wallow and seem to be actually 
swimming, unable to get a foothold and floundering 
as they try to lift their legs above the surface for 
another step. Such was Dr. Hutton's experience on 
his return journey. By a sort of instinct the dogs 
dropped into line one behind the other, so as to take 
advantage of the track made by the dog in front, but 
this made the lot of the leader an unhappy one. Jerry, 
however, marched in front with his snowshoes, tramping 
down the soft snow to make a firmer track. The snow 
also collects in a big snowball between the runners in 
front ; this must be kicked away, and the nose of the 
sledge lifted for a fresh plunge. The dog's life is a hard 
one, but the Eskimos do not treat them cruelly; but 
quarrelsome, lazy or sulky dogs require the whip at 
times. With an indescribable sweep of the arm the 
driver sends the thirty feet of walrus-hide lash hissing 
through the air, and with a sharp flick catches the 
right dog a sounding crack on the flank. When the 
animals were tired the driver would run in front to 
encourage them on. 

Sledge dogs are very ravenous, and will eat their 
harness, skin caps, in fact anything made of leather. 
Two or three meals a week is enough for sledge dogs. 
They are unpleasant brutes, handsome in their way, 
but unfriendly and sly ; easily mastered by firmness, 
but ready to take advantage of any weakness. 



46 ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 

There are plenty of thrills on a sledge journey, and 
coasting downhill is one of them. As soon as one 
began to descend the drivers moved to the front of the 
sledge, and sat one on each side. Their main concern 
seemed to be to keep the sledge from running away. 
They dug their heels into the snow, and tugged and 
shoved to keep the track ; and all the while they were 
yelling and screaming at the dogs, which raced on in 
front in a frightened effort to get out of the way. 

On these journeys Dr. Hutton was frequently obliged 
to take refuge for the night in a snow-house. When the 
afternoon light began to grow dull Julius would pull 
out one of the big snow-knives that he kept under the 
lashings of the sledge. A fearsome looking knife it 
was, with a bone handle and a blade a yard long. 
Brandishing this, he trotted from side to side, prodding 
here and jabbing there. He was " finding snow." 
Then the building began. It was generally on a gently 
sloping hillside, for there the snow hardens the best. 
Each of the two drivers armed himself with his huge 
snow-knife, and between them marked a circle on the 
snow. Then Johannes retired to the middle and began 
to dig. He first made a wedge-shaped hole to give 
himself a start ; and then from the sides of the hole 
he carved great slabs of the frozen snow, about six or 
eight inches thick, two or three feet long, and eighteen 
inches high, and they were nearly as heavy as stone. 
He just tumbled them out of his hole as fast as he 
could cut them, and they were all slightly curved. 
Julius seized the slabs and set them on edge, side by 
side, and chipped them a little from the top so that 
they leaned inwards. He pared away the first few with 
his knife so that the lowest ring, when finished, formed 
the beginning of a spiral. Meanwhile Johannes got 
nearer and nearer the wall with his digging, and his 
work got harder and harder, for instead of tumbling 



ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 47 

the slabs out he had to pick them up and hand them 
to Julius over the leaning wall. 

At last the spiral was finished, all but the keystone. 
Julius sprawled on the side of the house, while Johannes' 
hands shoved a big slab through the opening that still 
remained at the top. Julius laid it over the hole, and 
chipped the edges away with his knife until it gently 
dropped into place, and the building was ready. While 
Johannes smoothed the floor inside Julius was filling 
all the crevices with snow to keep the wind out. This 
part of the work was usually done by a boy. When 
Johannes had finished he slashed a doorway through 
the wall with his knife, and crawled out. After retiring, 
a small hole was pierced through the top for ventilation, 
and the doorway stopped up. The beds of the drivers 
consisted of harness; this was done so that the dogs 
might not eat it in the night, and a terribly uncomfort- 
able bed Dr. Hutton found it, though his discomfort 
was alleviated by his thick sleeping bag. When the 
house-building was finished the dogs knew their meal- 
time had come. Their meal consisted of chopped-up 
frozen seal. On this they pounced, yelping, snapping, 
snarling, gulping, those coming off best who gulped 
down their share quickest. For the men there was 
boiling tea and thawed bread and frozen meat. 

The dogs have an awkward habit of entangling the 
harness by leaping over the traces from side to side. 
Julius was clever at straightening it out without stop- 
ping. He would pull the team back close to the sledge, 
so as to get the frozen knot in the hauling line within 
reach of his teeth, and with the line tied to one leg, 
chewed the knot loose. Then he slipped the traces off 
one by one and looped them over his other leg, so that 
all through the performance it was a case of seventeen 
dogs harnessed to Julius' legs, while he sat tight and 
made the sledge come along with him. When a halt 



48 ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 

was called, the dogs did not settle down into the snow, 
they simply collapsed into it, and in a few moments 
were fast asleep under a covering of snow. Dr. Button 
found it necessary to take heed to his steps, for an 
innocent-looking mound might contain a savage sledge 
dog ready for food or fight. 

On the way home from one of their journeys in the 
spring-time they found that the tides had played havoc 
with the ice ; a crack four or five feet wide lay across 
the track, and there seemed to be no way of getting 
round it. The first thing was to fling or shove the dogs 
into the water one by one ; they made a great to-do 
about it, but the drivers pushed them all in, and the 
terrified creatures were soon shaking themselves on 
the other side. The next thing was to push the sledge 
along until the front of it bridged the crack and the 
runners were touching the other side ; then, with a 
great howl Julius started the dogs, and the men all 
jumped on to the sledge as it careered safely over. 
Then the drivers turned and looked at one another 
and laughed ; it was, to them, a spice of excitement in 
the monotony of sledge travel. 

The last few weeks before the freezing of the sea are 
a busy time for the Eskimos ; the whole village is in 
the ferment of a new excitement, for the seal-hunt is 
beginning. Men and boys are busily getting their 
kajaks ready for the water, lifting them down from 
the house-tops and scaffold-poles, searching for leaky 
places, smoothing the handles of paddles, busthng to 
and fro with harpoons and loops of lines, beaming 
with eagerness, and evidently looking forward to their 
favourite season. Seals are captured either by net or 
harpoon, or sometimes shot with a rifle. The rifle is, 
however, driving seal, walrus and bear further north, 
to lonely haunts still free from the hated presence of 
man. But the Eskimo is too conservative to give up 



ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 49 

the ways of his fathers ; he still likes to shoulder his 
kajak, and launch it with its weird and ingenious 
equipment all ready for seal-hunting. The harpoon lies 
ready at his right ; and as he wields his paddle he is 
always on the alert to let drive at the seal as it pops up 
for air. The skill with the harpoon is a thing that the 
Eskimos have not lost, nor, it is to be hoped, will they 
ever lose it. 

The seal is an agile beast, and ponderous withal, and 
when struck a sudden dive may chance to break the 
harpoon. To obviate this, the head of walrus tusk is 
jointed to the shaft by thongs, and on the end is loosely 
attached a barb, which is kept in place by a line looped 
on to a knob on the shaft. To the end of this line a 
bladder filled with air is attached. When the animal 
is struck the barb falls free, the head bends over, and 
the shaft floats on the surface of the water, the tell-tale 
bladder showing where the seal has gone down. When 
the seal reappears it falls an easy victim to the hunter, 
who seizes it with a long hook and draws the slippery 
carcase on the kajak in front of him. Dr. Hutton 
accompanied one party on a seal hunt, and when the 
animal was shot it was drawn on board ; its throat was 
then slit and each quaffed the warm blood as it welled 
out ; it is the custom of the people. In the presence of 
visitors their native ways are not much in evidence, 
for they fear to be laughed at ; but with those who live 
among them, travel with them, and eat with them and 
speak their language, they are the kind-hearted, open- 
handed, raw-meat-eating Eskimos. They still like to 
depend on the hunt for their daily food ; they still go 
out hungry in the morning, and gorge themselves on 
the raw flesh of the seals they bring home. This is 
their custom, part of their nature, born in them. At 
Okak and in the north generally, the people are broad 
and plump, with flat faces and sunken noses ; but 




6lo>rtn-«)D sealskip 
used as a float- 
Head of horpoon 
bending a/- (-^ejoinf 




EsH\rtio in his kajaK 



fioaY upon Hit water Seal wihhtarbof harpoon 
nfifh lineal-Pachcd and line atrached 



Harpoon and Bladder 



ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 51 

further south there are lean, sharp-faced Eskimos with 
bony limbs and pointed noses. They are pure-blooded 
Eskimos, but the cause of the change lies in the altered 
food and habits of the people themselves, habits induced 
by contact with the outer world. 

Seals are not the only quarry ; by far the best 
fortune a man can have is to catch sight of a walrus 
resting on the ice. The great idea is to rush boldly 
upon the ponderous beast and spear or shoot it while 
it is too dazed to move. It has no chance ; it is un- 
wieldy and slow and has hardly made up its mind 
which way to turn before the hunter is on it and its life 
is over. A walrus is a formidable beast ; its ferocious 
eyes and bristling whiskers and great gleaming tusks 
make a terrible picture ; and the very weight of its 
tremendous rush would be enough to frighten most 
folks, quite apart from the uncanny agility the huge 
animal displays when once it is roused. But the 
Eskimo in his kajak is a match for the walrus ; he is 
every whit as active and twice as sharp-witted ; and if 
the men see a walrus disporting himself in the water, 
they are after him like a shot. Landing a walrus is no 
joke ; it stands to reason that a creature fourteen feet 
long and fourteen feet round the middle is an enormous 
lump to lift. 

The lucky hunter skins his huge catch, and chops it 
into chunks, and hands the pieces round. The flesh is 
rank and coarse, and even the liver is tough. The 
Eskimos boil and eat part of the skin and make the 
rest into whips and sledge drags. 

No sooner is one hunting season over than another 
begins ; fox-skins, white, red and silver, fetch generous 
prices, but the greatest care must be taken in preparing 
them for the market. This is the wife's duty, and woe 
betide her if she makes a tear or a cut in the course of 
her scraping. If the hunter finds that the fox in his 



52 ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 

trap is not already dead, he dare not spoil the fur by 
shooting it, but kills it by kneeling on its chest. 

It sometimes happens that the hunter catches a 
tartar in the shape of a wolverine. The powerful brute, 
finding itself fast, marches off with the trap, snarling 
and grumbling at the pain ; and before the hunter can 
add it to his bag he has a weary trail through the 
woods, up and down, to and fro, following the blood- 
stained line of the trailing trap, and at the end of it all 
he has to face a sharp encounter with one of the most 
dangerous things a man can meet, a mad and furious 
wolverine. He is thankful to shoot the beast before it 
does him an injury — if he has a gun with him. 

The coming of the reindeer hunt is a time of great 
excitement, the beginning of which custom has fixed 
for Easter Tuesday, and scouts are sent out to bring 
back reports of the probable whereabouts of the deer. 
Every preparation is made, and there is stir and bustle 
all the day long. The hunters' whole equipment con- 
sists of a scrap of dried seal meat or fish for themselves 
and the dogs, a gun, an axe, a knife, sticking plaster, 
grease, and perhaps a kettle. They separate, and sleep 
in snow huts, for solitude has no terrors for the Eskimo 
hunter. After an absence of two or three days a dot 
may be seen on the distant snow which soon resolves 
itself into a sledge laden with reindeer meat, hides, and 
antlers. How enthusiastic is the reception, and how 
glorious is the feast which follows. 

In the spring a general exodus is made to various 
places on the coast which are best adapted for seal 
hunting. Sledges are packed like furniture vans, with 
wife and children, to say nothing of puppies on the top 
of the load ; great sides of dried reindeer meat are 
tucked among the boxes and bags, and the naked ribs of 
a new kajak top the pile. During the seal hunting the 
families live in calico tents. 




The Eskimo Boy 



A favourite boys' game— punting on the broken ice in the spring-time — and all the more 
dangerous because none of them can swim. 



ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 53 

When a man finds a blow-hole — that is, a round hole 
in the ice that the seal has made for its occasional 
breath of air — he surveys it critically, and decides, first 
of all, whether it is an old or a new hole. If the result 
of his examination is to his satisfaction he makes ready 
for the seal's next visit. He retires a few paces from 
the hole, arranges his implements, and lies down to 
wait. There he stays, as still as a stone, stretched on 
his face with his head towards the blow-hole and his 
eyes fixed untiringly upon it. Sooner or later the seal 
comes up to breathe ; like a flash the harpoon is sunk 
in its fat neck and the line is hissing down into the 
water as the terrified creature dives in desperation. 
The moment the harpoon has struck the hunter leaps 
to his feet and rams a sharpened stake into the ice, and 
on this he loops his line ; he is just in time to brace 
himself when the line draws tight and the seal stops in 
its career with a jerk. He then hauls his catch on to 
the ice ; when this is done he stoops to take his drink 
of blood. 

An otok is a seal which for hours basks lazily in the 
sunshine on the surface of the ice, near the edge. 
Though seemingly so lazy he is really very alert and 
flaps grotesquely into the water at the first sign of any- 
thing suspicious. When an Eskimo spies one of these 
from a distance he shields himself behind a screen of 
calico fastened on a wooden frame, and gradually 
worms his laborious way towards the unsuspecting 
creature until he gets within striking distance. 

Not all the families that flit in the spring-time go 
seal-hunting among the breaking ice, some turn their 
thoughts to the trout preparing for their run to the sea 
from the inland lakes. This pursuit is more paying than 
seal-hunting ; it is always fairly certain, and salt trout 
fetches a good price. The favourite way is to spread 
nets in the shallow water where the big rivers run into 



54 ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 

the sea, and clear them after every tide. This clearing 
is not so simple as it reads, for in addition to taking 
out the wriggling fish, the nets must be cleared of every 
particle of seaweed or rubbish, rents must be repaired, 
and pieces of ice towed away. This occupies the men 
the greater part of the day, whilst the women split and 
salt the fish. 

The close of the spring fishing and hunting brings 
the people back to their homes, until cod-fishing makes 
the months of August and September the busiest in 
the year. Day in and day out the boats are on the 
water with men and boys fishing from morning till 
night. The quantity of codfish is astonishing ; they 
literally teem in countless myriads along the coast. 

And so the Eskimos spend their summer, dwelling in 
tents, fishing and drying their catch upon the rocks, 
until by the end of September the main rush of the 
codfish is over, and the people make their way home 
again to their villages bringing their fish bundled ready 
for the market. 

From the beginning of July to the end of August, 
and even later, the summer air of Labrador swarms 
with countless hosts of blood-thirsty gnats. The supply 
is unlimited. The first bites may produce really alarm- 
ing results, but after the first summer one seems to get 
inoculated, as the natives pay very little attention to 
them. 

At all the older villages the people have huts of wood 
or turf — iglos the Eskimos call them. What unsavoury 
dens they were ! Imagine a thing that looks like a 
heap of turf or sods, with a battered tin pipe sticking 
out of the top, and a long low tunnel leading up to one 
side. Inside there is a lining of smoke-blackened 
boughs and trunks of little trees, all shiny with grease ; 
a small allowance of light filters dimly in through a 
membrane of seal's bowel stretched across a hole in 



ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 55 

the roof, and the door, hanging Hmp upon its seal-hide 
hinges, permits the only suggestion of air to waft slug- 
gishly along the tunnel porch. But the smell ! There 
is nothing like it ! These iglos, however, are getting 
few and far between, and little wooden huts are cropping 
up like mushrooms. 

During Dr. Button's stay in Labrador he saw very 
little of the old snow-house dwellings. They have 
vanished except in the neighbourhood of Killinek and 
some other parts of the north, and all that he saw of 
them was on his sledge journeys. But snow houses on 
sledge journeys are but poor imitations of the real 
thing with its ice- window and its carefully jointed wall 
and porch, and especially its luxurious size. 

[The information contained in this chapter has been 
derived from Dr. S. K. Button's book. Among the 
Eskimos of Labrador, by kind permission of the author.] 




El Gran Chaco 




THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO AND SURROUNDING STATES 



CHAPTER V 

THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 

Some years ago the Church of England South American 
Missionary Society began a work in the Paraguayan 
Chaco of which Barbrooke Grubb was the pioneer 
missionary and explorer, and where he has worked, 
and is still working in the heart of the Indian fastnesses 
among the tribe of the Lenguas, for more than twenty 
years. His name may be little known at home, but 
in South America he is recognised as the greatest living 
authority on the Indians of the Chaco. The Roman 
Catholic Government of Paraguay are so alive to the 
value of the good results effected by him that they 
conferred on him the title of " Pacificator of the 
Indians," and have accepted his geographical notes as 
the basis of an official map of the region. 

El Gran Chaco — what does this name convey to the 
mind of the average person ? Little or nothing. For 
hundreds of miles to the west reaching to Bolivia, to 
the north as far as Brazil, and southwards to the 
settled provinces of the Argentine Republic, there 
stretches a vast region almost wholly given up to 
barbarism. The two banks of the River Paraguay, 
which forms the eastern boundary, present an almost 
incredible contrast. On the one side civilisation, re- 
ligion and refinement, on the other primitive barbarism, 
superstition and cruelty sit facing each other, as they 
have sat for hundreds of years, separated only by a 
few miles of water of one of the finest rivers in the 
world, presenting no obstacles to navigation. Again, 
the two sides of the river are physically quite as different. 

67 



58 THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF 

On the west lies an almost dead-level plain, covering 
an area of some two hundred thousand square miles, 
while on the east hilly and undulating country pre- 
dominates. The plain consists of alluvial mud, swept 
down in past ages from the foot-hills of the Andes, in 
which not a pebble or stone can be found. Innumerable 
stories of this inhospitable region, nearly all lacking 
foundation, and the rest distorted, were used to try 
and dissuade Grubb from " committing suicide " ; it 
was a swamp, an impenetrable forest, a sandy waste, 
a land inhabited by cruel and treacherous people, 
reptiles and beasts ! But, apart from all exaggeration, 
travelling alone among savage nomads was fraught 
with considerable danger, not so much on account of 
their enmity as from misunderstandings on both sides, 
and superstitious fears on theirs. But from unimpeach- 
able records it is clear that expeditions have been 
annihilated, and that the Indians did not hesitate to 
kill foreigners even when in armed parties. 

When Grubb received his orders to penetrate into the 
interior he refused all offers of armed protection, arguing 
that his best protection against the suspicions of the 
people as to his motives, would be the want of protection, 
and trusting to his own tact and resourcefulness. His 
plan was to assume at all times and in all circumstances 
an air of superiority and authority, knowing that the 
Indians respect only the strong, and any sign of weak- 
ness would be fatal to his purpose. He respected their 
laws and customs so long as they did not interfere with 
his plans. On arriving at a village he insisted, as far 
as possible, upon all the people ministering to his 
personal comfort, ordering them to perform certain 
duties for him, but at the same giving only such orders 
as he felt sure would be carried out. For it must be 
remembered that his was a situation in which diplomacy, 
tact and moral force were his only assets, and if those 



THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 59 

failed him he was a beaten man, since resort to com- 
pulsory measures was out of the question. On one 
occasion he made arrangements to resume his journey 
early next day, but overhearing his attendants planning 
a hunt for the same time he wisely countermanded his 
orders, and gave them the permission they asked for, 
thus avoiding an awkward contretemps and loss of 
influence, and at the same time cementing goodwill by 
acceding to their wishes. His great opponents were, 
of course, the wizards, who knew that advance and 
enlightenment would undermine their power, but 
although he knew his danger he showed an unflinching 
and uncompromising front, and defied them to do their 
worst. 

The death of a colleague obliged Grubb to take up 
his residence at Riacho Fernandez, an island in the 
River Paraguay, neither a desirable nor a beautiful 
spot. 

An order to transfer his quarters to the heart of the 
Chaco was gladly received, and after some trouble with 
his guides he reached the village of Kilmesakthlapomap, 
where his sudden appearance caused the utmost astonish- 
ment, as also did his assumed autocratic behaviour, but 
his orders were executed without any demur. He took 
the precaution of sleeping upon his goods, and well it 
was he did so, for during the night he felt a hand 
cautiously groping under his head, but a loud yell put 
the would-be thief to flight. 

After spending some months in the interior Grubb 
returned to Riacho Fernandez. During his absence 
Indians had broken into the stores of an English land 
company and had carried off a considerable quantity of 
goods, with which they had retired many leagues into 
the interior. Grubb felt that if the culprits were not 
brought to book his own position and authority amongst 
the natives would be endangered, so he determined to 



60 THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF 

make the attempt. He discovered the village in which 
the delinquents had taken refuge. He assailed their 
character in vigorous terms in spite of all attempts to 
intimidate him, and after a heated discussion they 
agreed to repay the value of what they had stolen in 
skins and feathers, but only on condition that he 
promised to go with them to the foreigners, and after- 
wards to return and live with them. To this he agreed, 
but took the precaution of remaining in the village until 
the necessary amount of skins and feathers had been 
gathered together. 

After paying the compensation, Grubb took up his 
quarters in Neantamama, the village of the culprits. 
A hut was built for him of palm logs, and thatched 
with grass. There was no door, but the opening was 
filled with a bush as a guard against inquisitive dogs. 
The table consisted of four palm stumps driven into 
the ground, with a deer-skin stretched over them. 
The bed was a sheep-skin spread on the floor. Personal 
effects were suspended from the roof in Indian net-bags. 
One night, after having procured some meat, and hung 
it from the rafters, he was disturbed by a rustling 
amongst the leaves and grass which lined the walls of 
the hut, and perceived a black shaggy head worming 
its way through. Swiftly Grubb seized the hair at the 
back of the head, and pinned the face to the ground. 
On asking who it was a muffled voice informed him 
that it was *' Alligator stomach," and that fearing for 
the safety of the meat he had come to safeguard it. 
After a few homely truths Grubb roughly thrust the 
head through the opening and retired to bed. 

This attempt at theft was by no means an isolated 
case, for whilst at Riacho Fernandez he was gratified at 
receiving repeated presents of vegetables from the 
chief and his people, for which he recompensed them. 
But one moonlight night, being in a restless mood, he 



THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 61 

took a turn round his own cultivated plot of ground 
and discovered the chief and his followers industriously- 
digging up his vegetables. So that was the source of 
their generosity ! Their disgust at being discovered 
may be imagined. 

Grubb had persuaded the people of Neantamama to 
forsake their nomadic habits, and settle down to agri- 
cultural pursuits. A suitable place was selected named 
Thlagnasinkinmith. But whilst preparing for the 
move his hut caught fire, and he lost all his possessions, 
including his clothes, so that, until he could obtain a 
fresh supply, he was compelled to travel in Indian 
fashion, clad only in a blanket. This, although uncom- 
fortable, and even painful to Grubb, afforded the natives 
much gratification. They decorated him with some 
necklaces and an ostrich-feather head-dress, and nick- 
named him " The Dandy." 

Huts were soon built on the new site, and plots of 
ground laid out for gardens. But all was not smooth 
sailing, for an attempt was made to poison Grubb. 
An old woman fell ill, but recovered under his care ; 
the chief's child then fell ill of bronchial pneumonia 
which ended fatally. The chief was angry that Grubb 
had not cured the child as he had the old woman. One 
day, casually looking into his kettle in which water was 
boiling for tea, Grubb saw some strange leaves which 
had not been there before. He made inquiries, but, of 
course, all professed ignorance, and so he could do 
nothing else than fill the kettle with fresh water, but 
he felt no doubt that the attempt on his life was 
associated with the child's death. 

Grubb had from the very first made a strong stand 
against intoxicating liquors, especially the vile stuff 
imported from other countries. One day he was 
mixing a draught made up from a prescription against 
malarial fever, in which there was a small quantity of 



62 THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF 

alcohol, but the chief ingredient was quinine ; it was a 
particularly bitter and nauseous concoction. A native 
who was watching him rather suspiciously smelt the 
bottle, and remarked that it smelt like foreign liquor. 
So Grubb promised to give him some on condition that 
he told no one. The man's eyes sparkled with delight, 
and the promise was readily given. The draught was 
offered and eagerly tossed off. But his stomach revolted, 
and with a look of intense disgust he exclaimed, " That 
is not foreign liquor ! " He never again expressed a 
wish to try patent beverages, and Grubb believes that 
the secret was religiously kept. 

During the early years the Indians formed various 
impressions concerning Grubb's presence among them. 
Some believed that he was exploiting the country for 
timber or anything else of value ; others, that he was a 
criminal who had been cast out of his own tribe ; and 
others, that he was a powerful witch-doctor, but 
whether his presence was for good or ill was doubtful. 
This last opinion was the most prevalent, and the 
supernatural powers ascribed to him were marvellous. 
The witch-doctors naturally regarded him as their 
greatest opponent, but the common people rather 
welcomed him than otherwise, feeling that his presence 
among them added to their strength and gave them a 
position superior to that of the neighbouring tribes 
and clans. 



Some idea of the general aspect of the country may 
be formed by picturing an Indian village, situated on 
a piece of open land. At a little distance to the north 
flows a sluggish river, the current so slight as to be 
almost imperceptible. The banks are thickly covered 
with weeds, bulrush and papyrus rising high above the 
rest, and dense masses of floating water-lilies spread 



THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 63 

out at the roots of the trees. Dark tree trunks which 
have drifted down in flood-time rise here and there out 
of the water Hke huge, ugly reptiles. The stream, 
which is in reaHty about fifty feet wide, can only be 
recognised by a little clear water free from weeds in 
the centre. Close to the bank is a fringe of palm trees, 
which rear their tall branchless stems forty feet or 
more into the air, crowned by a single head of green 
fan-like leaves. The remains of last season's brilliant 
green crowns droop below in a cluster of dead leaves. 
A few shady trees are dotted here and there, which form 
a welcome contrast to some headless palms and dead 
stumps — killed by the destructive palm-beetle. On 
these gaunt stems lazy water-fowl are perched, calmly 
viewing the scene around them. In the water an 
occasional splash is heard as a sluggish fish leaps at a 
water-insect or seeks to escape from a fierce foe beneath. 
Here and there what seems to be a dead black log is 
visible, but what in reality is an alligator asleep, or 
slowly moving among the reeds. 

To the south, about a mile from the village, stretches 
a line of dense, dark forest, with small clumps of trees, 
and copses lying between. To the east lies a long stretch 
of low, damp, grass-covered ground, thickly studded 
with fan-leaf palms. The grass, unlike that of an 
English meadow, is tall and rank, and winding among 
the palm trees can be seen a single track worn by the 
feet of men. To the west stretches an immense ant-hill 
plain, covering fifteen thousand acres or more of very 
low land, with two or three inches of water lying upon 
it, a few palms, and only an occasional clump of trees. 
A dreary waste is this, thickly studded with ant-hills, 
three, four, and even five feet in height, and inhabited 
by teeming millions of industrious ants. A clear blue 
sky, without a cloud, spreads as a canopy above, and a 
blazing sun pours down its fiery rays, while the air 



64 THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF 

resounds with the croak of frogs, the screech of water- 
fowl, and the buzz of myriads of insects. 

The village consists of two lines of most primitive 
dwellings, constructed simply of boughs of trees fixed 
into the ground, which are interlaced together, and 
covered with grass and palm-leaves loosely thrown on. 
A few utensils and skins form the sole furniture. A 
fire smoulders a yard or so in front of each shelter. 
Women sit here and there gently swinging a baby in 
its string hammock or industriously spinning. One 
may be seen seated at a loom, made of four branches 
of a tree, weaving a blanket for the master of the house. 
The other women sit in little groups, passing round the 
pipe and gossiping. 

Two or three old men sit about, flicking off the 
troublesome flies, and apparently thinking of nothing. 
A few children — very few — play about in nature's 
garb. The men are away hunting the ostrich or the 
deer, or searching for honey ; others are fishing with 
hook and line, hand-net or fish-trap, and even with bow 
and arrow. 

At sunset the scene changes entirely. The flies have 
given place to mosquitoes, the fires are all blazing, and 
cooking goes on busily. The glare throws up these 
strangely attired and painted savages, with their white 
ostrich feathers gracefully waving to and fro. The 
dense forest in the background, with the stately heads 
of the palms silhouetted against the clear tropical sky, 
brilliant with stars, completes a picture which words 
are inadequate to describe. 

How different a few weeks hence ! The visitor will 
find the village abandoned, only the charred skeletons 
of the huts remain to tell the tale that a death has 
taken place, and that, for fear of the spirit of the 
departed the people have fled to another spot where 
they will be free from ghostly visitants. 




Women Ready for the "Puphek" Dance of the "Yanmana" Feast 

This particular dance takes its name from the bunches of deer hoofs attached to the long 
canes. When struck on the ground they produce a loud jangle, to which the dancers, 
numbering from ten to twenty, keep step. 



THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 65 

Change the scene to a great swamp, with little islands 
dotted about, and on one of these islands stands a 
similar Indian village. But here the surroundings are 
very different. The village is near the edge of the 
swamp, which is fully twenty miles in length and from 
one to four miles in width. The water on the average 
is waist deep, but in places the traveller is forced to 
swim, and this with great difficulty, owing to the matted 
and tangled vegetation. The bulrush and papyrus are 
found everywhere, and dozens of other water-plants 
are interlaced into an impenetrable mass, some of 
which are thorny and lacerate the flesh. Progress is 
impossible in this swamp, except along the narrow 
paths which have been made by the natives. Once off 
the high ground and in the swamp, the tall reeds, 
towering on all sides above one's head, make it utterly 
impossible to see anything but the sky, and here the 
uninitiated would soon lose their way. Neither is 
travelling in such a wilderness free from danger. Large 
water-snakes, and not infrequently alligators, are to be 
found, and occasionally even venomous snakes, coiled 
up on the matted undergrowth, their forms, owing to 
the similarity of their colours, being hardly distinguish- 
able from the vegetation. The island itself is covered 
with thick undergrowth and scrubby trees, with a 
fringe of palms encircling the whole. Such a place is 
dreary in the extreme, and especially on cold, cloudy 
and wet days, when the poor inhabitants huddle together 
or crouch for warmth over their fires, seemingly bereft 
of all life and energy. 

The Indian is a nomad ; first, by nature ; second, 
from the exigencies of his life ; third, owing to super- 
stitious fears. If his mind becomes imbued with the 
idea that the place is haunted, he must change the 
locality. He is sociable, and his habits are of the 
simplest. He sleeps out of doors unless the weather 



66 THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF 

be bad, waking at intervals to warm himself, light his 
pipe, or have a chat. Dogs are numerous, and fight 
and bark the whole night through. They are of no 
particular breed, and, poor beasts, have a terrible 
struggle for existence. Fleas swarm at all seasons ; 
mosquitoes are more than a plague, and the Indian is 
afflicted also by the garapata or tick which frequently 
causes a painful sore lasting for months. Sandflies, too, 
are a microscopic pest, excessively irritating. 

The covering of the men is the home-made blanket, 
fastened round the waist by a belt or slung over the 
shoulder in the fashion of a toga ; that of the women 
is a petticoat of skin, laboriously softened by hand. 
The most valued and expensive article of head-dress 
is a broad woollen band, to which are sewn diagonal 
lines, squares, or circles of small buttons cut from 
snails' shells. The top is fringed with bright scarlet 
feathers taken from the spoon-bill or flamingo. This 
head-dress is regarded as a charm by the wearer, especi- 
ally against the evil spirit of the swamps. They are 
much prized in consequence, and are worn chiefly w^hen 
visiting, feasting, or during courtship. The buttons 
referred to are made by hand, and a tedious process it 
is. They are strung into necklaces, sometimes six 

yards in length, and represent 
money. Such a necklace would 
represent the value of a sheep. 
Others are made of teeth, bone, 
and various materials. Wooden 
ear discs, armlets of lamb's skin, 
and anklets of the feathers of 
the rhea, are also used for 
personal adornment. 

The Indians smoke, but not 
to excess. The tobacco is 
Means of Obtaining Fire stripped from the stem, pounded 




THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 67 

and mixed with saliva, then formed into cakes and 
strung on a string for convenience. Fire is obtained 
by means of a flint and steel or by rubbing two pieces 
of a soft kind of wood together, one piece being, so 
to speak, drilled into the other by the palms of the 
hands. Gourds, naturally, play a very useful part in 
the domestic menage. Musical instruments are few in 
number, and comprise a bamboo flute, bone and 
wooden whistles, drums, and a kind of crude fiddle. 
Sharpened bamboo makes a very effective knife, and 
even at the present day hard wood knives are preferred 
for some purposes. 




A Crude Fiddle 

The Indians have no knowledge of writing, but they 
have roadway signs which are perfectly intelligible to 
themselves. The principal weapons, both of the chase 
and of war, are bows, arrows and a heavy hard-wood 
club. The arrows are made from cane, with barbed 
heads of various hard woods, with two feathers. Garden- 
ing on a large scale does not hold out many attractions, 
for nature and the insect world seem to combine in 
waging constant war on the unfortunate husbandman. 
As the Indians are nomads, dwellings are erected only 
as temporary shelters from storm or heat. One kind 
of hut is circular in form and composed of branches, 
rushes, grass, and palm leaves ; another kind is made 
of mats which the owner transports from place to place 
with his other possessions. 



68 



THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF 



*?j,7ii9i(auift 



Strange as it may seem the chief means of subsistence 
of the native Indians is by fishing ; but the Chaco is a 
land of contradictions. The reason for this, however, 
is not far to find. The hard arid plain over which the 
traveller rides to-day, may, on his next visit be a swamp 
extending for miles, five feet or more in depth, teeming 
with eels, mud-fish, and other forms of life, including 
an occasional alligator, and frequented by numerous 
water-fowl. The eggs of the fish are deposited, and 
when a drought comes, are protected by the cake of 
hard dry mud on the surface to await the next down- 
pour, when they are hatched out. Fish-hooks of bone 
or wood are used, as well as nets. 
Fish-traps of wicker-work^ very 
similar to lobster-pots, also are 
used. In deeper water, where it 
is clear, they frequently shoot the 
larger fish with bow and arrow. 
Eels and mud-fish are speared. 
Occasionally they capture a large 
water-snake, averaging about nine 
feet ; the flesh is coarse, but the bulk 
makes up for the lack of quality. 
Alligators are sometimes speared when they are 
asleep. Another, but dangerous method, is to form a 
line across a stream while a few others drive the animal 
down. As a rule the alligators when disturbed make for 
the water, but on one occasion when Grubb was in his 
canoe collecting poles one of them confronted him as 
he was about to land. The brute showed fight so 
Grubb thrust the paddle between his jaw. As he made 
nothing of this a pole was substituted and rammed 
well into his body, of course killing him. Trussed in 
this fashion it was towed home, greatly to the amuse- 
ment of the Indians. Dangers attend the sport of 
fishing ; more dangerous than an encounter with 




Wicker Fish-trap 



THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 69 

alligators or large water-snakes, because unseen. The 
sting-ray fish, for example, lies hidden in the mud of 
the swamps, and especially of the larger streams. 
When trodden upon by the fisher it retaliates by 
thrusting its powerful sting, rising as a fin from the back, 
into his foot, sometimes penetrating from the sole 
right through the instep. This causes not only intense 
suffering, but sometimes results in serious complica- 
tions, and even death. A less dangerous, but more 
common, foe is a small fish with very sharp teeth, 
capable of biting through thin wire. It frequently 
attacks the fisher, taking away a piece of his flesh. 

Poisonous snakes lurk in the tangled vegetation. 
On one occasion when Grubb was clearing a passage 
through a swamp, and bending down to cut at the roots 
of the undergrowth, one of them struck at him, but an 
Indian standing by dealt it a blow just in time with his 
bush-knife. The Indians are adepts at throwing with 
short thick sticks, and capture many water-fowl, whether 
swimming or on the wing, at a distance of forty feet. 
The jabiru, a species of large stork, affords an easy 
target and a substantial meal. Perhaps the most 
valuable game of the Chaco is the rhea, not only on 
account of its flesh which is considered a delicacy, but 
also for its feathers, which are used for personal adorn- 
ment and for barter. 

There are various ways of hunting the ostrich. If 
in a palm forest the hunter binds the leaves of a palm 
tree together and fixes it to his head and shoulders 
and easily gets within range of the bird without further 
concealment. But should be he hunting in an ant-hill 
country, he uses a bunch of creeper instead, such as 
crowns the head of every ant-hill. In open scrub 
country the hunters block the open spaces between 
the copses with brushwood. These obstacles the foolish 
bird could easily leap, but he persists in following the 



70 THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF 

line of brushwood, and is thus easily shot. In open 
country the bird is often chased on horseback, the 
hunters using the lasso or bola, a long hide rope weighted 
at the end, which twines round the legs of the ostrich 
and trips it up. 

The Indians are clever mimics, and use this power to 
great advantage in imitating the cries of certain birds 
and animals. They are especially clever in stalking 
deer, and Grubb has on several occasions been pre- 
vented only in the nick of time from firing on the 
hunters in mistake for deer ; even the Indians them- 
selves have been thus deceived. 

Wild pigs are found in two varieties in the Chaco, 
the smaller and larger " peccare," the former being by 
far the more formidable. Frequently Indians in hunt- 
ing these animals are forced to take refuge in a tree. 
The pigs move about in herds, sometimes thirty or 
forty in number, and the natives assert that they 
sometimes surround and kill a jaguar which has been 
tracking them. 

One of the most peculiar animals found in the Chaco 
is the ant-eater, of which there are two kinds. The 
great ant-eater measures about seven feet from snout 
to tail, and is said by the Indians to succeed sometimes 
in killing the jaguar. They are said to carry their 
young on their back. 

In addition to these beasts there are the tapir, maned 
wolf, fox, armadillo, tiger-cat, carpincho (river-pig), 
nutria (an animal resembling a beaver, but smaller), 
otter, iguana, and a number of smaller animals. 

The puma and the jaguar are the two largest carni- 
vora, but the former is not feared by the natives. The 
jaguar, however, they hold in great respect, and with 
good reason, for man-eaters are occasionally met with. 
They are said to be driven to this by old age, when 
their teeth are decayed. The natives construct an 




Besieged 

The peccaries drove the large jaguar in terror up into the tree trunk. 



THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 71 

ingenious trap to catch the animal. Selecting a path 
on which they have detected its spoor they fell a tree 
across it, but leave a small opening at one side. Across 
this opening they dig a pit in which is arranged a lasso 
so that it will encircle the jaguar's body without the 
animal being able to bite it through. The end of the 
lasso is fastened to a stout branch of a tree overhanging 
the path. The pit is then covered over with leaves 
and earth. Although naturally quick to detect any- 
thing of a suspicious nature the brute is so perplexed at 
finding his usual path blocked that he walks right into 
the snare. A native one day climbed a tree in search 
of honey, leaving his sandals and weapons on the 
ground. Looking down he saw a jaguar at the foot 
mauling his sandals, and started climbing higher to 
the slimmer branches where the animal could not 
follow him, but suddenly came upon a large wasps' 
nest. The infuriated insects showed their resentment, 
and the man's lusty yells soon brought his companions 
to the spot. When they saw the situation they took 
refuge behind trees and soon put an end to the brute. 
They then returned home with the carcase to enjoy a 
huge meal as well as the joke of their companion's 
predicament. 

Travelling in the Chaco is far from being a pleasure 
jaunt, in fact it is full of discomfort and often danger. 
On one occasion Grubb with some native followers, 
amongst whom was a wizard, reached a small river in 
the darkness of a pitch-black night. Grubb made for 
the usual crossing, but the wizard insisted that there 
was a better ford further down. This they tried and 
soon found themselves floundering in mud, so they 
retraced their steps to the first crossing. The dogs he 
had with him refused to cross, and Grubb bade his 
companions cross before him. This they did, but 
when he himself was half-way across with his dogs his 



72 THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF 

companions set off at full gallop and disappeared in 
the forest. Grubb followed as well as he could but 
soon lost his way. He called out, but only a faint re- 
sponse came from the distance. Later on, wet, cold, 
mud-spattered and much worried by mosquitoes he 
was rejoined by the natives, who assured him there was 
a devil at the crossing which the dogs had seen, hence 
their reluctance to cross. On arriving at the village 
the wizard spread the story that Grubb had been 
attacked by a devil who caught him by the leg and 
nearly unseated him, and that in his terror he had fled 
into the forest where he had been lost, all the time 
calling piteously on the wizard to help him. It took 
years of explanation to convince the people that Grubb's 
own version of the story was the true one. 

Hearing that there was a large feast being held in a 
neighbouring village, Grubb determined to visit it. 
His reception was rather a mixed one, as many of the 
feasters were in a bemused condition, and the chief 
accused him of having killed his horse by witchcraft, so 
preferring not to take further part in the festivities 
Grubb retired to his own quarters. During the night 
he called for water, but the man who was called, being 
in a muddled condition, brought beer. Much amused 
at Grubb's refusal to drink it he calmly sat down and 
finished it himself. But the rest of the night he was 
possessed by the idea that Grubb was calling for beer 
and kept bringing supply after supply, the last of 
which, a calabash containing about two quarts, he 
succeeded in spilling all over him ; so with beer-sodden 
garments and tormented by mosquitoes Grubb spent a 
comfortless night. 

Wishing to return to his headquarters Grubb applied 
for a guide to the chief Mechi ; but none being forth-' 
coming Grubb insisted on Mechi acting in that capacity, 
but he was so intoxicated that he kept falling off his 



Section of a Lengua Woollen Blanket 

The only male attiie. The whole process of manufacture is the work of the women, 
and the result is remarkable considering the primitive materials at their disposal. 
Various designs are introduced denoting snakes' skins, palms, cross-roads, etc., and 
in some cases there is a striking resemblance to Inca designs — pointing to the po sible 
orisfin of the Lenguas. 




Blanket Weaving 



The most primitive loom in the world. Two forked uprights and two horizontal 
branches. Upon this crude frame woollen blankets of very even and fine texture are 
woven. 



THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 



73 



horse, until the happy idea of getting a boy to sit 
behind him and hold him on, solved the difficulty. 
During this journey they encountered a dust storm, 
followed by terrific thunder and exceptionally vivid 
lightning. A torrential downpour soon put out their 
fire and chilled them to the bone. The rest of the 
journey was hard for both man and beast. Often the 
horses were tethered over their fetlocks in water. 
Frequent gullies were crossed where the water covered 
Grubb's saddle, and the horses were at times momen- 
tarily off their feet. On arriving at the larger streams 
they had to make rafts to transport their belongings, 
and across the smaller they swam with their goods, in 
instalments, tied upon their heads. After six days' 
journeying under these miserable conditions they were 
glad indeed to arrive at Thlagnasinkinmith. 




A Lengua Pipe 



CHAPTER VI 

THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 

As years passed by and Grubb's influence over the 
Indians grew, the work became sufficiently consolidated 
to enable him to leave on his first furlough to England. 
But before leaving it was decided to establish a mission 
on the West-South- West Chaco, on the borders of the 
Lengua, Suhin, and Toothli tribes. After serious con- 
sideration an Indian named Poit was authorised to carry 
out some preparatory movements on the frontier during 
Grubb's absence in England. He was at that time a 
most hopeful and capable adherent, and it was for this 
reason he was chosen. Seventeen head of cattle and 
other goods for barter were given to him, with definite 
instructions that he was to establish himself at a certain 
place, make a garden, barter the goods for sheep and 
goats, and the cattle also as opportunity offered. He 
was to do what he could to persuade the people to 
gather round as soon as men could be sent out to 
commence the work, and to impress on them the con- 
ditions of Grubb's residence among them. First, that 
no native beer should be brewed or consumed on the 
station. Secondly, that feasts must not continue longer 
than three days. Thirdly, that no infanticide should be 
allowed. Fourthly, that the people must work when 
called upon. Fifthly, that they must be prepared to 
carry mails to the River Paraguay, and bring out goods 
when required. Sixthly, that they must keep clear the 
cart-track which had been made, and that the peace 
which had already been established between the three 
tribes must be maintained. 

74 



THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 75 

Similar compacts had been made in other localities, 
and the results had been quite satisfactory. The 
natives had possessed cattle, but from one cause or 
another had lost all. Fresh cattle were introduced 
with the stipulation that none should be killed until 
they had increased sufficiently to admit of doing so. 
On two occasions only had this rule been broken and 
followed by tragic results to the offenders. In the one 
case the man's powder flask took fire, and he was badly 
scorched ; in the other the gun burst, and the man lost 
the greater part of his hand. To the untutored mind 
this was quite sufficient to deter any venturesome 
person from infringing the rule. 

The natives, of course, had no idea of what a furlough 
meant, and as the months went by gave up all hope of 
seeing Grubb again. This idea so possessed Poit that 
he began to regard himself as the successor to the 
property left in his charge. He had been warned that 
he would be called to account, but preferred to take the 
risk. Consequently when Grubb returned, his alarm 
was great, and he did what he could to conceal or make 
good his defalcations. Other thefts had taken place on 
the station, and many incidents conspired to attach 
suspicion to Poit. Although Grubb's health was far 
from good it was necessary to commence work on the 
new station if the scheme was to be successfully carried 
out. Accordingly a start was made on foot with six 
Indians, of whom Poit was one. In the light of subse 
quent events Poit's actions were suspicious, but not to 
such an extent as to call for comment at the time, 
though the carriers did express surprise at some of his 
orders. 

All went well for some time. Grubb had gone ahead 
with Poit, making for a suitable camping place for the 
midday halt. He frequently noticed that his Indians, 
who were carrying all his provisions and kit, were not 



76 THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF 

in sight, but he did not pay much attention to this, 
thinking they had lagged behind to gather fruit. He 
therefore rested beneath a tree, and sent Poit back to 
hurry them up. It was a long time before he returned 
bringing some provisions with him, and relating a story 
of how one of the men had run a thorn into his foot, 
and the others were helping him along, and would 
overtake them. It was on this night that Grubb 
noticed for the first time that Poit seemed preoccupied 
and strange in his manner, but put it down to various 
causes. Poit had in the meantime given orders to the 
Indians to return to the last village and there await 
Grubb's return, and gave several plausible reasons for 
their non-appearance, for they had had ample time to 
make up lost ground even if the story of the man with 
the thorn had been true. Grubb concluded that his 
Indians had deserted him, and felt grateful to Poit 
for his faithful adherence. 

They had now reached Poit's own village, and Grubb 
instituted inquiries as to Poit's conduct during the 
time he was in England, and the replies were quite 
reassuring. Subsequent events showed that they were 
all leagued together to conceal the defalcations. The 
journey was resumed and the last Lengua frontier 
village reached. An attack of fever compelled Grubb 
to rest here for a day, and Poit advised him to send the 
fresh carriers he had secured on ahead, as he knew a 
short cut through the forest, and Grubb consented. 
While he was having his breakfast, Poit sat opposite 
him sharpening some iron-headed arrows with a file. 
Eventually the journey was resumed, but in the forest 
Poit confessed that he was uncertain about the best 
course to take ; the bush was seemingly impenetrable, 
so he went off, as he said, to reconnoitre. After a while 
Grubb heard, just ahead of him, the crackling of bushes, 
such as would be caused by the progress of man or 



THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 77 

animal. Grubb halloed for Poit, at the same hoping to 
scare the beast, if such it should be. Shortly afterwards 
he saw Poit peering through the trees, with a strange 
look on his face as of excitement and fear combined. 
Poit then joined him in a very small open space, not 
larger than a moderate-sized room, with dense under- 
growth all around. Grubb ordered him to go ahead 
and break a way through. He replied, " Wait a minute ; 
I have forgotten the kettle " ; and went off to fetch it, 
telling Grubb to open a passage as much as he could 
to save time. Grubb did not realise that when he saw 
him ahead he had actually been manoeuvring to get a 
fair shot at him, and that the strange expression he 
had seen on his face was the result of acute tension and 
fear of discovery. 

He was bending down to clear a way, when suddenly 
he felt a sharp blow in his back, just below the right 
shoulder-blade, close to the spine. He rose up and saw 
Poit, about four or five paces off, with a look of horror 
on his face. He bade him come to his assistance, but 
he only cried out " O, Mr. Grubb ! O, Mr. Grubb ! " 
Then with a sharp cry of pain and terror, " Ak-kai ! 
Ak-kai ! " he rushed off towards the river, and was 
lost to sight. 

Grubb remained perfectly calm and clear-headed, 
and Poit's real intent, with the whole series of his 
villainous devices and inventions, passed vividly 
through his mind. He felt no pain, which was quite 
natural, for a sudden shock such as this tends to deaden 
the nerves. Blood was spouting from his back, and 
soon from his mouth as well. The iron arrow-head, 
seven inches long by one inch wide, had penetrated so 
far that he could only get three of his fingers on the 
protruding part of the blade, the shaft, a cane one, 
being completely shivered. Realising that he might 
swoon he made for the river, and after being somewhat 



78 THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF 

revived by the water, he proceeded to extract the 
arrow. This caused him great difficulty owing to its 
awkward position, and having to work it backwards 
and forwards, up and down, in order to free it from its 
wedged position in the ribs. When extracted the 
point was bent and twisted from the violent contact 
with the bone. He then returned to the forest, picked 
up the few articles left by Poit, and re-entered the 
water and waded along in order to destroy all traces of 
tracks, in case his would-be murderer should return to 
complete his work. 

The wounded man made his way to the beaten track, 
where he was discovered by a friendly Indian. He was 
helped to the nearest village, and there tended with every 
mark of sympathy. A night of horror and pain was 
passed, haunted by the dread of being buried alive. It 
is the custom of these people to bury a patient who is 
in a moribund condition, before sunset, before actual 
death has taken place. This is done not from feelings 
of brutality, but from a superstitious dread of being 
haunted by the ghost of the deceased person, should he 
die during the night. 

News was sent to the Mission, and in the meantime 
the wounded man received many visitors who all 
expressed their sympathy, and left him with the con- 
soling remark that he could not possibly recover, and 
that they had chosen a very nice site for his burial 
place. The Indians do not differentiate between a 
swoon and death, and therein lay Grubb's dread and 
danger. Next day he determined to make an attempt 
to reach the Mission. With infinite pain and difficulty 
some progress was made until they reached a village 
where a horse was obtained, but as the Indians use no 
saddles the jolting was terrible, and his Indian com- 
panions were obliged to hold him on the animal's back. 

In certain villages through which he passed where 



THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 79 

he was well known, and where he had formerly been 
cordially welcomed, Grubb noticed a curious change 
of attitude ; it was not hostility, but rather bore the 
appearance of shyness or fright. This he subsequently 
learned was due to the report that he had actually 
been killed. They did not deny that the body was his, 
but had their doubts as to who the tenant might be, 
and attributed the marvellous way in which, in his 
critical condition, he had managed to cover the long 
distance from the scene of the attack to the probability 
that the soul animating his body was other than 
human. 

The station was reached, and here Grubb remained, 
making slow progress towards recovery. The only set- 
back he experienced was shortly after his arrival, when 
lying asleep in his hut. A tame tiger-cat had also gone 
to sleep on one of the beams overhead. It lost its balance 
and fell down from the beam, unfortunately right on 
Grubb's chest, and he woke up with a great fright, to 
find it spitting viciously in his face. In his weak and 
nervous condition he sustained a great shock, and the 
cat was made to pay the penalty of death for its un- 
intentional fall, the owner being afraid it might again 
annoy him. 

Later on Grubb was taken to Asuncion, and from 
there to Buenos Ayres, where he was successfully operated 
upon. After recuperating in the hills of Cordoba he 
returned to the Chaco, where he was warmly welcomed, 
but many of the Indians were still sceptical of him ; 
some even touched him to see if he were really flesh 
and blood. 

There is no record within the memory of any in- 
habitant of this region telling of an Indian being slain 
by his own tribesmen for the murder of a white man, 
far less for an attempted murder. Before the attempt 
on Grubb's life many foreigners had been killed by 



80 THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF 

Indians within the recollection of natives still living, 
and similar murders have occurred since ; yet no 
punishment was meted out to the criminals. On the 
contrary, an Indian who killed a foreigner was looked 
upon by his people as a hero, and worthy of all respect. 
Yet in the face of this record, Poit was executed in a 
cold-blooded and formal manner by his own tribesmen, 
and with their unanimous consent, for the attempted 
murder of a white man, who without doubt was regarded 
with suspicion and dislike by many, although he was 
loved and revered by others. 

That Poit had to die the death of a murderer seems 
to have been their general verdict. Exactly by what 
means and methods they managed so speedily to get 
the opinion of the bulk of the people, scattered as they 
were over a large area, with only scanty communica- 
tion, it is difficult to surmise. But one thing is quite 
clear, that the Indians far and wide were evidently 
unanimous, though doubts were entertained by a few 
that Poit's execution had really taken place. 

Poit in his defence urged that Grubb was a com- 
parative stranger ; that he was not killed ; and that 
his own tribesmen would not surely put him to death. 
But it was decided that he must die, and a pyre was 
prepared near to him. They then gave him an intoxi- 
cating drink — probably beer mixed with the seed of a 
grass which acts as a strong opiate. A short time was 
allowed to elapse, and then the two chosen executioners 
drew near. One smote him several times on the head 
with a machete, or long knife, while the other stabbed 
him repeatedly in the abdomen. His body was then 
placed on the pyre and burned to ashes. When all was 
consumed, the ashes were taken up and scattered to 
the winds. 

Grubb used his utmost endeavour to save Poit's life, 
but with no avail ; he did, however, succeed in rescuing 



p^f* 





A Bottle-trunk Tree 

The bark is very hard and thorny, but the heart is 
-oft and pithy — eminently suited for hollowing out to 
erve as a dug-out canoe. The tree produces a beauti- 
ul lily flower, and the seed-pods contain a quantity of 
Uk-liice substance. 




A Lengua Roadway Sign 

The stick denotes that a party of Indians have gone 
in the direction it leans towards, which is further 
emphasised bA- grooves cut in the ground. They have 
gone to a feast, indicated by the bunch of feathers. 
The smaller stick with a fleece of white wool and a 
cob of maize shows that a sheep will be killed and 
eaten, together with maize. 




A RaL-ILE-SNAKE in the (jRA.S.S 

Photographed alive in the act of striking. The bite 
is very poisonous, and the danger to the naked feet 
and legs of the Indian travelling through the long 
grass is evident. 



The Rattle of ihe Rattle-snake 

The end of the tail— the continuation of the back- 
bone—is shtathed with loose ring-shaped sections of a 
horny substance. The wagsing of the tail produces 
the rattling sound. This snake is supposed to acquire 
a new ring to its rattle each year it lives. 



THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 81 

his family, who, according to custom, would have 
perished with him. Far from weakening the efforts of 
the Mission party, and driving them in disgust out of 
the country, this tragedy served only to stimulate them 
to greater efforts ; and their stern self-sacrificing 
endurance and determination to adhere to their purpose 
exercised a great influence over the people, who admire 
courage and respect the man who shows it. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 

Grubb was for many years regarded as a powerful 
witch-doctor, and the people at length regarded his 
presence amongst them as undesirable, so they deter- 
mined to get rid of him. Their plan was to surround 
his hut with brushwood, and set fire to it, and to kill 
him when he rushed out dazed with fire and smoke. 
They also planned to build small shelters along the 
route which he usually took to the River Paraguay 
in the east, so that his spirit being attracted by 
them might be induced to leave the country finally. 
Fortunately the plan was not carried out. 

Every village has its witch-doctor, whose duty it is 
to protect his own people from supernatural evil, and 
by means of his sorceries to avenge them when wronged. 
The office is not necessarily hereditary, although it does 
sometimes run in families. Their secrets are jealously 
guarded, but the greater part of their art is pure decep- 
tion, and Grubb met only a few really clever wizards. 
Their training consists in severe fastings, abstention 
from fluid, and solitude. They eat a few live toads, 
some kinds of snakes, and a certain kind of small bird. 
Some of them understand to a slight degree the power 
of hypnotism. They are necessarily students of nature, 
as they may be called upon to regulate the weather 
according to requirements. They are called on to 
exorcise evil spirits. Grubb one day saw a woman 
throwing herself about violently. Four men were 
holding her down while a witch-doctor was bending 
over her trying to drive out the evil spirit. Grubb saw 

82 



THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 83 

at once that it was simply a case of hysteria, and pro- 
curing some strong ammonia applied it to her nose. 
The effect was instantaneous, much to the astonish- 
ment of the people. The wizard afterwards privately 
begged for some of the liquid. Grubb allowed him to 
take a hearty sniff at the bottle, but the smell nearly 
overbalanced him. As soon as he could speak he 
emphatically declined to take any. 

Grubb had brought a few hideous masks to amuse 
the boys. After their first suspicions had been allayed 
they determined to play a trick on the witch-doctor 
and presented themselves suddenly to his startled gaze. 
For one moment he was paralysed with fear, the next 
he was flying at full speed for the village, followed by 
the sarcastic remark that it was strange an expert in 
spirits should be so terrified when he met them. The 
Indians have a dread of haemorrhage, and the wizard 
works on their fears by showing that such may happen 
to himself with impunity. He conceals certain beans 
in his mouth, and after some fantastic display spits 
out a quantity of liquid, apparently blood, but really 
the colouring matter of the beans. 

A wizard with a great reputation reached the village 
one day. He could produce at will living insects from 
his mouth, to the great awe of his audience. Grubb 
desired to see him, and somewhat to his surprise he 
came to give his performance. He went through the 
usual contortions, thumping his head and pressing his 
stomach, then ejected into his hand several creeping, 
wriggling insects, and held them out for Grubb to see, 
with a triumphant look on his face. Grubb professed 
to be astonished at his cleverness, and gave him the 
present he had promised him. He then insisted on his 
sharing some of his food, at which the wizard seemed 
somewhat unhappy ; but Grubb persisted, and in the 
midst of the admiring throng he had no alternative but 



84 THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF 

to consent. He took a large mouthful, and while he 
was endeavouring to masticate the food, looking at 
him straight in the face, Grubb said, " That was a clever 
thing you did just now ; you must really show it me 
again " ; but he only turned on his heel and went 
away. It was plain he had some more live insects in 
his mouth, and they evidently had become mixed with 
the food. He would have had to swallow it, otherwise 
he would have shown discourtesy. Swallowing the food 
would have meant swallowing the insects and slugs as 
well, so he assumed offended dignity and strode away. 

On another occasion, feigning a pain in his arm, 
Grubb sent for old " Red Head," who, believing him 
to be in earnest, proceeded to spit upon the place, and 
after sucking the place produced three small fish-bones, 
which he asserted were the cause of the trouble, and 
had been placed there by an unfriendly wizard. Taking 
him unawares Grubb opened the wizard's mouth and 
produced several more fish-bones which he held up to 
view without comment. Needless to say old "Red 
Head " never forgave the exposure. For some time a 
wizard had been obtaining supplies of small English- 
made needles ; then an epidemic of " Needles " broke 
out in place of the fish-bones mentioned above ; sus- 
picion was aroused, and when the supply of needles was 
stopped the epidemic died out. 

There is a root found in the forest, of the size of a 
large apple, and supposed to be deadly poisonous to all 
but wizards. This power Grubb determined to test. 
He procured a root and offered it to the Indians who 
had assembled to witness the test. They scoffed at the 
idea. The root was then offered to the wizard who was 
present ; he took it and calmly bit a large piece out of 
it, chewed and swallowed it. Grubb then made as if 
to bite a piece himself, narrowly scanning the face of 
the wizard, for, he thought, perhaps he had some 



THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 85 

antidote for the poison, but his face showed no emotion 
of any kind. Then taking his courage in both hands 
he bit a piece and swallowed it. No evil results followed, 
and Grubb proceeded to point the moral, namely, the 
folly of trusting the word of a wizard, for he himself 
had eaten of the root without evil result. " But," 
interposed the witch-doctor, " we all know that you 
were a great wizard, and therefore you could take no 
hurt ! " Instead of scoring a point Grubb had lost 
one, for his good intention had simply confirmed the 
popular belief. 

There was danger at one time of a rupture between 
the Lenguas and Paraguay, and a witch-doctor declared 
that he had power to charm the guns of the Paraguayans. 
Grubb, in vain, warned them of the danger of trusting 
to this, and offered to demonstrate its fallacy with his 
Winchester rifle on the person of the witch-doctor, but 
this offer was decidedly rejected by the latter. 

One of the few conjuring tricks performed by the 
witch-doctors is that of spitting pumpkin seeds into the 
air, and immediately producing full-grown fruit. The 
trick is a simple one, performed with the aid of con- 
federates who have the fruit concealed under their 
cloaks, and drop them on the ground as soon as the 
seed is spat into the air. When Grubb pointed out that 
this would prove a most useful trick in times of dearth, 
the argument appealed to a most practical side of their 
nature, and made a considerable impression upon them. 

Adolpho Henricksen, founder of the Anglican Chaco 
Mission, died from exposure on the River Paraguay, 
but Grubb was informed by the Indians, when they 
were incensed against him, that he had better be careful 
because their witch-doctors had killed him by their 
sorceries. Taking them at their word, he demanded 
and obtained compensation all round for the injury 
done to his tribesman. For a long time afterwards 



86 THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF 

they still maintained that he had been killed by 
witchcraft, but, not caring again to be fined, the. 
witch-doctors ingeniously denied having done this 
themselves, and attributed the deed to the wizards of 
the Caingua, a tribe to the north of Paraguay proper, 
thus maintaining the reputation of witchcraft and at 
the same time guarding themselves against further 
punishment. 

There is, however, one is glad to know another side 
to the character of the wizards ; they possess a certain 
amount of practical knowledge, and really make use 
of it. They know of many herbs which they employ 
as medicines. The bitter bark of a tree is known to 
allay fever. The malva, or mallow plant, is used in 
cleansing wounds, and so are other herbs. They have 
also a plant which relieves toothache, and others of 
greater or less efficacy are used in specific diseases. 
Snake-bite they often succeed in curing, chiefly by 
suction and by tying a ligature between the wound 
and the heart. They also have some idea of inoculation 
for snake-bite, using the fangs very carefully in scratch- 
ing parts of their bodies. They practise massage with 
considerable success. Saliva is freely used on wounds, 
and to stop bleeding they apply clay or earth. They 
are very accurate in calculating the probabilities of 
recovery or death, judging principally from the appear- 
ance of the eyes. 

Undoubtedly the most gruesome of all Indian customs 
are those connected with the burial of the dead. A 
death has taken place ; the sun is fast sinking in the 
horizon. The village, which at noon was stirring with 
life and energy, is now desolate, save for six or seven 
solemn and awe-struck Indians, who have been deputed 
to carry out the last dismal rites. The body lies just 
outside one of the huts, covered with a reed mat. 
Presently two men approach, and, removing the matting, 



THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 87 

they hastily wrap the body in a native blanket. Then, 
laying it face downwards, they lash a pole along the 
back, tying it at the neck and heels. Raising their 
gruesome burden upon their shoulders, in strange 
procession they wend their way to the forest in the fast- 
fading light. 

A grave is hastily dug with wooden diggers, and the 
body, loosened from the pole, is forced into a sitting 
posture inside. Haste is necessary for the sun has 
already disappeared, and, according to their laws, the 
funeral ceremony must be concluded before the red 
glow has died out of the sky, and they have still the 
last rites to perform. When death seems imminent 
the dying person is removed from the village and laid 
outside, with a mat thrown over him, although he may 
be quite conscious. Quite close to him preparations 
are being made for a hasty departure. When the 
village has been abandoned, those appointed to attend 
to the funeral rites wait till the last possible moment — 
about half an hour before sunset — unless the sufferer 
has actually died sooner. But whether he is dead or 
not, if there is no possible hope of his living through 
the night, his funeral begins, in order that it may be 
completed before darkness sets in. 

The rites to be performed alter according to the 
circumstances of death, but there is never any variation 
in the purification ceremony, the words at the graveside, 
and the position of the body in the grave. The burning 
of the village and the destruction of the property of 
the deceased are always customary. 

A very common rite is the cutting open of the side, 
and the insertion into the wound of heated stones, an 
armadillo's claw, some dog's bones, and occasionally 
red ants. The wound is then closed. In cases where 
haste is necessary the sick person is not always dead 
when this operation is performed. The body is then 



88 THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF 

placed in a sitting position, facing the west. The 
grave is then filled up, and certain plants are placed 
above it. 

Grubb was once invited to attend a burial, which 
was a mark of great esteem. When the burial rites 
had been performed he was asked to say some words. 
As the shades of night were falling the members of the 
party did not pay much heed to what he said, especially 
as his knowledge of the Lengua language was somewhat 
imperfect and they were impatient to get home. All 
went well for a time ; Grubb had persuaded the people 
not to destroy or desert their village, but they had 
taken the precaution of removing their dwellings so 
that Grubb's hut was interposed between them and 
the burial place. About midnight he was awakened 
by a terrible uproar amongst the people. The few guns 
they had were being fired off, arrows were whizzing 
through the air, women were shrieking and beating on 
the ground with sticks, children crying, dogs barking, 
and goats and sheep running hither and thither. Grubb 
hastily lit a home-made wax candle, and got from 
under his net. He had hardly done so before three men 
rushed into his hut, exclaiming that he was trying to 
destroy them. For some time he could make nothing 
of their accusations. They were terribly excited, 
evidently full of rage, and in a dangerous mood. 

All went outside, and at the door stood two or three 
of the younger men. who had been much attached to 
Grubb for some time ; they informed him that the 
ghost of the buried man had been seen to enter his hut, 
where it remained for some time and then disappeared ; 
also that the words he had uttered at the grave were an 
invitation to the ghost to pay him a visit — a most 
serious breach of custom ; and that the people were 
greatly incensed and proposed killing him. Grubb saw 
that the moment was extremely critical, and that his 




Indian Stalker, Disguised as a Clump of Foliage 



The inset clearly shows how the hunter may be mistaken for an ant-hill covered with 
vegetation, the bow and arrow being barely distinguishable. The stalker runs for some 
yards, and then stops dead at any warning of his approach, moving on by stages till within 
bow-shot. The raw hide belt is usually the only hunting dress. 



THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 89 

only safety lay in keeping as calm as possible, for flight 
was out of the question. To show that he had no belief 
in the existence of the ghost he proposed to walk over 
to the grave. This seemed a reasonable proposal, and 
they all set out. But when they had gone some distance 
a discussion arose, some asserting that as Grubb had 
just had an interview with the ghost he would not be 
afraid to meet it, and so they all returned. 

Finding nothing further could be done Grubb tried 
to appear quite indifferent, and returned again under 
his net. Doubtless they thought he had gone to sleep, 
and perhaps remarked on his coolness and bravery. 
But in reality he remained quite as wide awake as any 
of them for the remainder of that night. He heard 
afterwards that the cause of all the uproar was an old 
woman's dream, in which she saw the ghost. As the 
people had been in an exceptionally excited and anxious 
state of mind that night owing to the fact that they had 
adopted this innovation of remaining in a place after 
a death, their excitement was easily fanned to a flame 
when this old woman suddenly awaking, recounted her 
dream. Nevertheless Grubb's predicament was awk- 
ward and unpleasant enough, and he never knew 
exactly in what imminent danger he was at the time. 

In this case Grubb had been a party to the burial, 
and had therefore been supposed, together with the 
others, to have done all that he could by rites and 
ceremonies to prevent the spirit from having any 
occasion to revenge itself upon its people, and the 
accusation of the Indians was that, in opposition to 
the whole object of the funeral rites, he had called up 
the ghost. The fact also that he had urged them to 
remain in the same village made any breach of honour 
on his part the more culpable, as it placed him under 
the suspicion of having laid special traps to bring about 
their ruin. 



90 THE SAVAGE TRIBES OF 

Purification by washing, and the drinking of hot 
water, follows the burial, and finally all the booths in 
the village are burnt to the ground. Mourning consists 
in painting the face black, streaks being made to 
represent tear courses. Near relatives of the deceased 
live apart for a month, because they are regarded as 
unclean. 

One interesting feature of Chaco Indian life is the 
holding of periodic feasts. Their life on the whole is 
dull in the extreme, and these gatherings are looked 
forward to by them as among the great events of their 
lives, in bringing the people together and widening 
their friendships. Although feasts are connected in 
great measure with their religion, such as it is, they 
also partake very largely of the social element. They 
are seven in number : the Yanmana connected with 
the coming of age of a girl ; the Kyaiya held to welcome 
the coming of spring, the summer solstice, and the 
autumn equinox ; the marriage feast ; the funeral 
feast ; the war feast ; on the arrival of guests, or after 
a successful hunt, or on any other occasion of rejoicing. 
Except in the case of the first two, feasts are held only 
at night, beginning at sunset and ending promptly at 
sunrise, and in all cases the night is the most festal 
time. In the absence of a moon, light is obtained by 
large fires and palm-leaf torches. All are gaily painted 
and covered with ornaments, their head-dresses of 
feathers being especially striking. Grubb himself saw 
the advantage of joining in these feasts as it brought 
him into closer and more intimate relations with the 
people, and helped to cement the good feeling between 
him and them, especially as he played his part 
thoroughly. He adopted a blanket, feathers, anklets, 
and an Indian shirt. The artistic decoration was under- 
taken by two women, who with sticks of red paint 
made from the seeds of the urucu plant drew the most 



THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 91 

wonderful marking upon him. His head-dress was more 
troublesome to adjust, owing to his short hair, but 
eventually they turned him out evidently to their full 
satisfaction, and, bringing him a piece of broken 
looking-glass, bade him examine and admire himself. 
He was soon the centre of an admiring crowd, and he 
confesses that the transformation in his appearance 
was such that wherever he had happened to appear he 
would assuredly have attracted a crowd. 

As serious quarrels are liable to rise at such festive 
times, a small number of men were told off each day 
and night to remain perfectly sober, in order to act as 
police in case of necessity ; and when trouble arose the 
women at once secreted all dangerous weapons. 

The general idea of the Indians' character in the 
mind of the foreigner is that they are stern and morose. 
Grubb assures us that this is not the case, but that 
they are exceedingly light-hearted and amiable, delight- 
ing in the company of their fellows, and much given 
to feasting and merry-making. In their villages the 
sound of laughter is the rule and not the exception, and 
this with old and young alike. 

Drunkenness is not one of the Chaco Indians' vices. 
They do certainly make an intoxicating beer, but it is 
not nearly so pernicious in its effects as the vile im- 
ported spirit. An old chief living near the River Para- 
guay had given way very greatly to the rum craving. 
He went into Grubb's hut one day in a drunken con- 
dition. When he kindly asked Grubb how he was and 
was told that he was suffering from a severe headache. 
" Ah," said he, "I told you that Paraguayan rum was 
no good, but you won't drink our stuff." 

The Indian is essentially polite in his own way, and 
his is no superficial politeness. Once when Grubb was 
accompanied by Bishop and Mrs. Stirling they had 
occasion to cross a river in a dug-out. On reaching the 



92 THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO 

bank the Indian in the bow leaped out and offered his 
hand to Mrs. Stirling, but realising that it was covered 
with grease and dirt he excused himself then spat on 
his hand and rubbed it with a none too clean handker- 
chief, then again offered it ! But his intentions were 
good. 

[The information contained in these chapters has 
been derived from Mr. W. Barbrooke Grubb's book. 
An Unknown People in an Unknown Land, by kind 
permission of the author.] 



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Route of Captain Haywood's Journey 



CHAPTER VIII 

A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 

Captain Haywood had spent some years soldiering in 
West Africa, and had often wished to explore the 
ramifications of the Upper and Middle Niger, but the 
difficulty of obtaining sufficient leave had been an 
insurmountable obstacle. His chance came at last, 
however, when he found himself at Freetown, the capital 
of the British colony of Sierra Leone, with six months' 
leave due. 

He determined to spend his furlough in a journey 
down the river from its source, making shooting excur- 
sions at suitable points in its basin, and directing his 
steps towards Timbuctu. From Timbuctu he proposed 
to cross the Sahara Desert, striking almost due north 
for Algiers. The strange tales he had often heard of 
this desert, and the curious wandering tribes who 
inhabit it, interested him and made him wish to ascer- 
tain for himself the truth of them. Gao is the name 
of a village further east of Timbuctu, on the bend of 
the Niger, and from this place Haywood eventually 
started on his journey across the desert. 

Such an undertaking required very careful attention 
with regard to the baggage. It must be cut down to 
the least possible quantity, but at the same time no 
requirement must be forgotten. As far as Kidal he 
would have the company of one non-commissioned 
officer and six soldiers belonging to the Senegalese 
Tirailleurs. Thereafter, except for his guide and two 
servants, he would be quite alone. 

There are comparatively few parts of the Sahara 

94 



A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 95 

which are absolutely deserted by mankind, for almost 
the whole of this lonely region has a population of 
nomads. These nomads, it is true, are very few in 
numbers, and rarely stay in one spot for any length of 
time. The desert nomad has perforce to be a hardy 
creature or he would very soon die of starvation or 
thirst. His wants in the way of food are small and 
easily satisfied, while he trains himself to exist, like his 
camel, on little water. Water is scarce everywhere, 
and is only found in wells, but it is rare that one has 
to march more than sixty miles without passing a well. 
In this portion of the Sahara there is a periodical 
rainfall which consists of three or four tornadoes, 
averaging possibly one or two inches in the year. 
These tornadoes come between the months of July and 
September, and it is due to them that the wells fill up. 

Captain Haywood's first objective was Kidal, but 
the shortest route to that place was not taken, as the 
guide for some reason of his own reported that the 
wells were in a bad condition, which proved to be quite 
false. 

Captain Haywood's plan was to do most of the 
marching during the night, starting in the evening, as 
the day grew cooler. He usually rode for the first two 
hours, and about sunset dismounted to rest his camel 
and to stretch his legs. If it was a moonlight night he 
used to walk for several hours, but on a dark night 
walking was not so pleasant. The country was usually 
open, and it was possible to march, even on a moonless 
night, without fear of the camels coming to grief. 

On all sides a death-like stillness prevailed ; for 
hours, and sometimes for days, they would march 
without seeing a single soul. For miles there would be 
no signs of animal life, then suddenly a herd of gazelle 
would come into view, feeding on the desert, scrubby 
grass, and at the sight of the caravan they would 



96 A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 

scamper away, frightened at the unwonted sight of 
man. 

Some of the camels began to show signs of fatigue, 
and several had terribly sore backs, which Haywood 
dressed with iodoform daily, and it was almost as pain- 
ful to him to see them loaded as it was to the animals 
themselves. The negro soldiers were quite callous to 
the pain they inflicted when loading them. 

The camel is a curious-tempered animal. He seems 
to have the same characteristic as most desert nomads. 
He dislikes mankind cordially, and takes no pains to 
disguise the fact. 

To mount a camel he must be made first to squat on 
the ground. The right leg should be rapidly thrown over 
the saddle, lifting the left foot from the rein and placing 
it on his neck. The camel will then generally — but not 
always — rise with a most disconcerting jerk, growling 
loudly all the while. This is perhaps the most awkward, 
and even dangerous, moment for the unwary novice. On 
rising the camel first throws his head and body forward 
with lightning-like rapidity, when the rider must 
conform by equally rapidly jerking his own body in 
the reverse direction, otherwise he will inevitably lose 
his balance and be hurled to the ground. The Saharan 
camel is not a well-trained animal, so it behoves one to 
be careful when first attempting to mount an unknown 
beast. 

After having mounted the rider will not persuade him 
to cease his angry grumbles for some little time. If he 
refuses to rise, as he sometimes does, the only plan is 
to tap more or less violently with the feet on his neck ; 
but in every case the golden rule is to have patience. 

One dark night the camels were hobbled in some 
excellent pasturage close to the camp, but when 
morning broke not a camel was to be seen. They were 
traced back along the route by which they had come 



A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 97 

for fifteen miles ! Although hobbled they had accom- 
plished this distance by a series of little jumps. It was 
not the slightest use to get angry ; when dealing with a 
camel meek resignation is the virtue to be cultivated. 
A camel's walk is a most tiring motion. He sways the 
rider from side to side as well as from front to rear. It 
is something like being in a ship when she is both 
pitching and rolling, and makes one painfully stiff and 
sore. 

The wells at Tinderan were to be the next halting 
place, but the Arab guide developed ophthalmia and 
his place was taken by a Tuareg who promptly lost his 
way and instead of going in a north-easterly direction 
was gradually heading south-east, leaving the wells 
behind them. A halt for the night was called, and all 
went waterless to rest, for very little remained, and 
unless the wells were found on the next day matters 
would be very serious. But to their great relief the 
wells were discovered ; the guide had led them out of 
their course only eight miles ! 

To the ordinary observer Tinderan was hardly an 
attractive-looking place. It lay in the midst of typical 
Saharan scenery. Wastes of yellowish white sand 
{Surrounded it on all sides. Besides the wells, there was, 
of course, nothing else at Tinderan, for that was simply 
the name of the wells. There were some half-dozen of 
them, consisting merely of holes excavated in the sand, 
and not discernible until one actually walked up to 
them. But to the desert traveller, tired and thirsty, 
the surroundings mattered little ; the chief point, and 
the only point, was that here was water and plenty 
of it. 

The heat had so far been so great that all had suffered 
to a greater or less degree. Haywood's skin was as 
tender as a child's ; his face, arms, and knees were 
terribly burnt and swollen, and he suffered torture 



98 A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 

every time he touched or bathed them. Even the 
native's hard feet became fearfully blistered and swollen 
by the burning heat of the rocks. Raids on the water- 
skins during the march were frequently attempted, 
and the N.C.O. of the escort received the strictest orders 
to keep the men from the water. If they had been 
allowed to drink all they wished the water supply 
would soon have been exhausted, and it is always a 
sound principle to arrive at a well with some water in 
the water-skins, for it is never certain in the desert 
that the wells will not be found dry. 

After a twelve days' march the party reached Kidal. 
What a pleasant spot it seemed ! Here there were 
actually two houses, or rather huts, built of mud. 
Further, there were about a dozen date palms sur- 
rounding the little post. The spectacle of real trees and 
real green leaves once more was most refreshing. One 
need no longer stint oneself for water. At Kidal 
Haywood secured the services of an Arab who had the 
reputation of being a sure guide. There were some 
very fine camels here belonging to the detachment 
stationed at the post ; and had been bought from the 
Ifora Tuaregs. These people breed a very fine class of 
" mehari," their riding camels being renowned for their 
power and endurance throughout the Central and 
Western Sahara. The Iforas are the Tuaregs who 
wander in the Adrar country. 

The chief peculiarity of these people is that they 
always wear a veil over the lower portion of their faces, 
which conceals all their features except the eyes, and 
sometimes the ears. This veil is made of blue stuff, 
and is called a " litham," its chief service being to 
prevent the wearer from being choked by the clouds of 
sand which are ever blowing about in the Sahara. 
Moreover, it prevents thirst to a remarkable degree. 

The Iforas share the usual dislike of the Tuareg to 



A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 99 

contact with mankind, and with Europeans in particular. 
They possess an unenviable reputation as first-class 
looters and highwaymen, but in this respect the Iforas 
are by no nieans the worst offenders amongst desert 
tribes. They are said to be plucky in war, but will 
avoid fighting when possible. They have two distinct 
classes — the Thaggareen, who are the nobles and 
govern the various clans into which the tribe is split, 
and the Imrads, or middle class. AH menial work is 
done by slaves, called " beylas." These slaves have 
been captured at various times from different negro 
tribes during Tuareg incursions into the Niger country, 
or else when a caravan has been plundered. They are 
armed with spears, swords, and shields. They dislike 
a rifle, and seem to regard it with a strange mixture of 
contempt and fear. The swords are of two kinds : one 
is a cutting sword worn at the side, and the other, 
called a " tellak," is about twelve inches long, re- 
sembling a dagger, and is worn on a leather bana on 
the left forearm, just below the elbow. The shields are 
about six feet high, made of bullock or sheep hide, and 
are sometimes rather picturesquely painted with strange 
devices on the middle of the front face. 

Tuaregs are rather a handsome race. They are 
usually tall and slimly built, but very wiry. They have 
well-cut features, blue eyes, and a pale complexion. 
The origin of these people is shrouded in mystery. 
They are wonderful camel masters, and understand 
more about these animals than anyone in the Southern 
Sahara. They can identify a camel in a most accurate 
manner by observing his tracks in the sand. Tuaregs 
have been known, on observing the tracks of several 
camels at a well, to state that such a one was the camel 
of such and such a member of his tribe and that he had 
been there two or three days previously. They will 
tell correctly almost to a man, how many a certain 



100 A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 

caravan numbered ; and when it is recollected that 
camels usually follow each other in single file, it will be 
understood that this is no easy matter. 

At Kidal Captain Haywood was obliged to get rid of 
his tin bath. To him as to most Englishmen the daily 
" tub " was a necessity, but a bath in the Sahara was 
an unheard-of luxury, with water at such a very high 
premium, so, as being cumbersome and useless, and as 
being an object of intense dislike to the camel, it was 
presented to his host as a return for his hospitality. 

This country is known as the Adrar of the Iforas, 
and round about some of the wells are found evidences 
of a former sedentary occupation, such as flint arrow- 
heads, small stone axes, pottery, foundations of build- 
ings, and such-like remains, showing how different must 
have been the conditions from what obtain at the 
present day. 

The second stage of the journey, from the French 
military post of Kidal to Insalah was nine hundred and 
fifty miles, and as the lives of Captain Haywood and his 
followers depended on his camels he secured animals in 
better condition than those he had brought from Gao, 
for this portion of the desert entailed crossing an arid 
region called the Tanezrouft in which there was no 
water for two hundred miles. At the wells of Abeibera 
quite an event occurred, for they met two traders from 
the oasis of Touat on their way to Kidal. This may 
seem a trivial matter to those who are accustomed to 
jostle their way along crowded streets, but in the 
Sahara where such meetings are rare, it soars to the 
importance of an event. Moreover, strangers may turn 
out to be armed robbers. 

This meeting, however, was very friendly and was 
the signal for much tea-drinking. The Arab of the desert 
is extremely fond of tea, which he drinks with a great 
deal of sugar. The tea is stewed in a saucepan for about 



A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 101 

twenty minutes ; the result being a nauseating con- 
coction very bad for the nerves. But the Arab drinks 
no alcohol, and very little water. During the tea- 
drinking a party of Tuaregs came to the well to water 
their sheep and camels. Haywood wished to buy a 
sheep or even a little milk, but nothing would induce 
the owners to part with either. 

The country was now getting much wilder in aspect. 
The rocky ridges were higher, and " oueds " or dried- 
up channels of former streams were less sandy and more 
strewn with boulders. Bourassa was the next well, 
and the next to that Taoundert was only forty miles 
away. Taoundert, however, they found quite dry, 
without even a cupful of water in it, and the next well. 
In Ouzel, was another two days' march further on. 
There was very little water in the skins, so Haywood 
determined to push on with the greatest despatch of 
which the camels were capable. But disasters seldom 
come singly, and the lack of water was not going to be 
the only trial during the next two days. Halting only 
an hour for rest at Taoundert, he pushed on that night. 
It was imperative to reach In Ouzel as soon as possible 
as the water-skins were losing the precious liquid drop 
by drop, owing to the usual leakage which they all 
invariably develop. 

The camels on the march were always tied in single 
file, one animal's tail being attached by a string to the 
next one's lower jaw. The order of route was, in front 
Haywood and the guide, in the centre his servant 
Musa, and in rear the camel-driver. It was necessary 
to have someone in rear, for sometimes a camel would 
break his string and wander away from the rest of the 
caravan. They had been marching for about six hours 
when Haywood happened to drop back for a short time. 
He noticed to his dismay that two camels, those carry- 
ing the food supply, were missing. The camel-driver, a 



102 A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 

very sleepy Arab boy, had mounted one of the animals 
in the middle of the caravan and was calmly sleeping 
on his beast. There was no sign of the camels, and it 
was impossible to say when they had strayed. 

They could not afford to lose those camels, for they 
carried all the provisions ; at the same time it would 
have been madness to delay the whole caravan when 
water was so scarce and time so precious. The remain- 
ing water was divided into two portions, and half was 
given to the camel-driver. He was threatened with all 
sorts of penalties should he dare to return without the 
lost camels, and sent off to look for them, while the 
rest proceeded on their way to In Ouzel. Next day the 
water was finished, and at midday a frugal repast was 
made off the reserve ration always kept in a haversack. 
The meal consisted of a handful of dates and a little 
" couscous." This latter consists of wheat used for 
Timbuctu bread, prepared in a particular way. The 
wheat is unhusked and steamed for some hours. It is; 
dry and very portable, at the same time it softens 
quickly in a little water and is easily digested. It can 
be carried in a bag slung across a camel, and will keep 
for months in this manner. 

Their throats got parched, and their tongues began 
to swell from heat and thirst. How they longed for the 
sun to set, and the cool of the evening to relieve them a 
little from some of their torture ! But that night there 
was no time to rest, they must march on in spite of 
their fatigue, so they trudged wearily on. When the 
following day they arrived at In Ouzel they were all 
thoroughly exhausted, and the craving for water was 
something pitiable. Even the guide, that hardy desert 
wanderer, rushed to the well as soon as it came in sight, 
hastily lowering a small leather vessel, and drawing it 
up full of water. Their relief to see the water was 
beyond expression, for a horrible fear beset them that 



I 



A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 103 

perhaps this well too would be dry. Fortunately all 
came right in the end, and even the lost camels turned 
up that evening. Needless to say the camel-driver was 
not entrusted further with the rearguard. 

Both man and beast required rest after this trying 
time, and it was determined to halt for three or four 
days at In Ouzel. This was the more necessary as the 
next stage of the journey was across the Tanezrouft, 
an arid region extending for many miles, without a 
single well, and to cross this inhospitable tract with 
camels in inferior condition would be madness. 

The halt at In Ouzel was anything but pleasurable, 
for a series of terrible sandstorms came on, and Haywood 
had an attack of fever. His tent was blown down right 
at the commencement, and the force of the wind was so 
terrific that attempts to pitch it again were hopelessly 
futile. Clouds of sand enveloped his bedclothes and 
himself. The suffocating heat of the desert air was 
intense, while the sand choked anyone who dared to 
open his mouth for an instant. A glass of cold tea or 
water became filled with sand. He used to hide his 
head under the bedclothes in desperate efforts to keep 
the sand-laden air from buffeting his face. Eating, 
drinking and sleeping were impossible, and all the time 
the fever racked his limbs and made his head throb in a 
maddening way. He had discarded his mosquito 
curtain, so he had not even that as a protection, though 
it is doubtful if it would have proved in the slightest 
degree effective. It was not till the evening before 
their departure that Haywood's fever left him, and he 
was glad to get out of his bed of sand, feeling very 
weak and shaky. 

A few nomads were encamped in wretched hovels 
near the well, their flocks of sheep sustaining life on 
such scanty herbage as they could find. When one 
animal, more fortunate than the rest, espied one of these 



104 A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 

tufts he would start gobbling it up as quickly as he 
could before his companions could claim a share. 
Another sight, both humorous and pathetic, was to see 
these animals in the middle of the day trying to get a 
little shade from the blazing heat of the sun. The 
strongest of the flock would take up a position behind 
the trunk of a mimosa bush, whereupon the remainder 
of the party would attempt to benefit by crowding 
close up to him, one alongside the other, until there was 
a long tail of these animals, huddled close behind each 
other, trying to get some satisfaction out of the shelter 
obtainable from the shadow of the sheep in front. 

At In Ouzel the character of the desert had changed 
considerably. Here was the more popular conception 
of the Sahara. A soft white sand covered the landscape 
on every side. At each step one sank into it for a depth 
of about a foot. Beyond the sparse grass no vegetation 
of any sort existed within sight of In Ouzel, but in some 
of the more sheltered " oueds " lying to the east of the 
well, was a tall shrub, with leaves somewhat resembling 
the Scotch fir. This was the plant on which the camels 
fed, and is known as " ethel." It shares with other 
Saharan flora the peculiarity of possessing thorns, or 
rather, in this case, spikes. It is a curious fact that 
every herb, plant or tree in the desert seems to have 
some kind of a thorn growing upon it. It is rather 
strange how the camel eats these thorny morsels. 

After a thorough overhauling of the equipment ;| 
especially the saddles, a start was made for the wells of ^ 
Timissao, ninety miles further on, on the southern 
border of the Tanezrouft. The ground was bad for the; 
camels, being rocky and strewn with loose boulders. 
The camel is not a sure-footed animal, and if he stumbles 
recovers himself with difficulty. The water at Timissao 
was excellent, and at this well the final preparations 
were made for crossing the Tanezrouft. Watering the 



A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 105 

camels was a laborious process, as these animals are 
greedy drinkers, and require a full day to enable them 
to drink all they require. He will consume three or 
four gallons at a time, then withdraw, and in a couple 
of hours or so he will return for a further ration, and so 
on until he has absorbed eight or ten gallons. To 
facilitate matters a trough was hollowed in the sand, 
lined with stones, and filled with water drawn from the 
wells, so that several camels could be watered at one 
time. 

On quitting the wells of Timissao the caravan at once 
entered on the Tanezrouft, a bleak, arid waste, consist- 
ing apparently of a vast plain of hard sand, with a faint 
line of hills in the far east. Marching till evening a 
halt was made for a meal, but when the moon rose the 
journey was resumed, but clouds obscured the sky and 
it became very dark. It was marvellous how the guide 
undeviatingly and without hesitation held on his way. 
At daylight there was a halt for ten minutes to enable 
the devout Mahomedans to say their prayers ; then on 
till 11 a.m. in a blistering heat, when they rested till 
2 p.m. And so on with unvarying monotony, day after 
day, the only variety being in the violence of the sand- 
storms. 

These sandstorms were really the most horrible feature 
of that dreaded waterless desert. The storm would 
begin with little warning. All of a sudden in the distance 
there would appear a dense, greyish yellow cloud, whirling 
rapidly from the distant horizon. This was preceded 
by an intensely hot wind, resembling somewhat the 
hot-air blast from a furnace when the doors are opened. 
This hot wind carried with it countless scattered particles 
of sand, the scouts, as it were, of the storm which was 
following. This preliminary wind, with its accompany- 
ing sand, was a mere bagatelle. The real trial was to 
follow. Close on its heels came the sandstorm — a 



106 A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 

whirling, densely packed bank of sand, hurrying forward 
at a headlong pace, blinding and overpowering every- 
thing with which it came in contact. 

Before one of these terrible storms it is impossible 
to stand up without the danger of being overcome. 
The only plan is to fall on the ground and cover up 
one's face, lying there until the storm is past. The camels 
instinctively do the same. They know, even quicker 
than a man, when a sandstorm is coming, and prostrate 
themselves before it arrives. These sandstorms are 
awful things, to which even the most experienced and 
philosophical of Arabs never get used. Instead of 
cooling the air, they seem to make it hotter. The heat 
when a sandstorm is about is remarkably oppressive. 
Just before and after a storm of this description the sun 
is seen through a haze, reminding the spectator of the 
appearance it has in London on a foggy day. Of course, 
while the storm is raging no sun can be seen. Indeed, 
the air is so thick with sand that it is impossible to see 
more than a few yards. Moreover, the person who 
raises his head when a really bad storm is raging is 
foolhardy in the extreme. 

Captain Haywood, during these trying days, found it 
difficult to sleep, the only time he managed to do so 
was during the short rest in the evening after dinner. 
Even when sleeping in the Sahara it behoves the traveller 
to have one eye open, for there is always the fear of 
possible attack from desert robbers. The plan adopted 
was to form a miniature zariba of the luggage, and not 
to go to sleep without having two loaded rifles within 
reach. 

On the fourth day the monotonous flat sand gave 
place to barren, rugged peaks of isolated hills, split and 
cracked into hundreds of clefts by the action of the 
powerful sun. The gaunt, gloomy rocks were suggestive 
of a terrible loneliness, where no living thing existed, af 



i 



A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 107 

land of desolation and the home of eternal death, with 
the ghastly remains of some lost caravan scattered 
about. After passing this desolate spot the desert 
resumed its former appearance, but now the camels 
began to show signs of weariness, and to relieve them 
much of the luggage had to be thrown away. Water 
began to lighten itself with alarming rapidity, and was 
becoming so nauseous from being kept so long in the 
leather skins that the only way it could be drunk was 
in the form of tea. 

At length, to everyone's joy, they reached the wells 
of Ahnet. Here there was fair pasturage for the camels, 
so it was decided to halt for a day and a half, for men and 
beasts were in need of a rest. The worst was now over, 
for the strain of the last few days had been almost 
intolerable. The chief source of anxiety was always the 
water. The skins, or " guerbas," in which it is carried 
are extremely susceptible to injury. Thorns which are 
so common in the Sahara penetrate the soft goatskin 
with ease, causing a puncture which very soon empties 
the bag of its precious liquid. These bags each carry 
about six gallons when full. 

The country into which they now emerged was 
Western Hoggar, a mountainous country situated 
almost in the middle of the Central Sahara, inhabited 
by a tribe of the Tuareg race. The Hoggars had a 
most unenviable reputation as the greatest robbers in 
the Sahara, but the French desert columns to a great 
extent curbed this propensity, but not altogether. 
For, one afternoon, Haywood noticed three wild figures 
riding rapidly towards them on camels. He instinctively 
felt for his rifle, and both his men were armed with 
rifles, though of a somewhat antiquated pattern. The 
arrivals were fully armed with rifles, swords and spears, 
though they reminded one forcibly of stage brigands, 
so fantastic was their appearance. The leader, a 



108 A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 

stalwart man, with his face more than usually enveloped 
in his " litham," wore a bright red cloth thrown over 
his shoulders, while his legs were encased in a pair of 
gaily decorated leather boots, which reached almost to 
the thigh, and covered entirely the lower part of his 
baggy white trousers. The two followers were similarly 
attired, but less elaborately, and appeared considerably 
inferior in rank. All three were mounted on the shaggy- 
haired camels which are bred in the mountainous country 
of Hoggar. These beasts looked built for speed, and 
appeared to be in first-rate condition. 

The three rode swiftly up to the guide's camel and 
laid hands on the trappings, but Haywood who was in 
the rear urged his camel forwards and covered one of 
the Tuaregs with his rifle. The men released their hold 
on the guide's camel, and they realised that they had 
made a foolish mistake. Haywood ordered them to 
clear off or he would take them prisoners ; at the same 
time he told his men to relieve them of their ammuni- 
tion, but left them their rifles, for rifles could be easily 
replaced but ammunition could not. 

The next well to be reached was called Imbelram, 
but the water was so salt as to be almost undrinkable ; 
however, the " guerbas " had to be filled as there was 
ahead of them a waterless region, about eighty miles 
wide, but some good water from the previous well still 
remained, and this Haywood determined should last 
as long as possible, as the water from Imbelram made 
them all ill. 

The wardrobe of the party was now in a most de- 
plorable condition. Musa's nether garments had given 
way altogether, so he slipped his legs through the sleeves 
of his coat and threw his blanket carelessly round his 
body, presenting an extremely ludicrous appearance ; 
nor were Haywood's clothes in a very much better 
condition. 



A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 109 

The distance to the next well, El Gouirat, was 
covered in fifty-four hours. This they reached, after 
hard marching, in a state of exhaustion, but, as the 
guide said it was " quite near " to Insalah, Haywood 
decided to push on, leaving the baggage to follow more 
leisurely. The guide's joy at being so near his destina- 
tion no doubt made him exaggerate, for the distance 
to the oasis was about twenty miles, and it was eight 
o'clock that night before they arrived, both men and 
beasts being quite done up. 

Haywood's entry at the officer's mess was a strange 
one. The Arab servant who answered his summons at 
the door regarded him with evident suspicion ; probably 
the only Europeans he ever saw were the officers with 
whom he was well acquainted, and the sight of a strange 
white face seemed to cause him great uneasiness. He 
positively refused him admission, so he brushed past 
him and mounted some steps towards the flat roof on 
which he could see several men sitting. When he 
announced himself their surprise was hardly less than 
that of the servant. They afterwards told Haywood 
that they had heard news of his projected journey nine 
months ago, and as he had not arrived, they thought 
he had probably abandoned his plan or come to grief 
in the Sahara. No wonder, therefore, that his appear- 
ance now caused them some surprise. When he arrived 
that night the heartiness of their welcome could not 
have been exceeded. It made him really appreciate 
kindness when it was extended to him, as it was by 
those French officers, with such thorough genuineness. 
It is needless to say how he enjoyed his supper that 
night at Insalah. After eating food cooked in sand for so 
long it was indeed a treat to have a well-served-up dish. 

From Gao to Insalah Haywood calculated he had 
marched across nine hundred and thirty-six miles of 
desert, and the time taken was fifty days. 



110 A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 

Insalah is a fortified post with thick walls of red clay 
which is found beneath the sand in the neighbourhood. 
It is the chief oasis in the region called Tidikelt. The 
oasis stretches for a distance of about three and one- 
third miles to the west, while the grove of palm trees is 
on the average one and one-third miles wide. The 
place has a total population of about five hundred 
souls. Water is found at various depths, and is very 
plentiful. Grain is grown to a certain extent by means 
of irrigation, but the most important is the date crop. 

As time was getting short Haywood resumed his 
journey northward with fresh camels and provisions. 
Wells were not infrequent ; and at one place. El 
Guettera, water was actually trickling in a thin stream 
from the rock, a most unusual sight in the desert. The 
range of El Guettera forms the south-western border 
of the plateau of Tademayt, about one thousand six 
hundred feet above sea-level. The plateau was reached 
by a precipitous track, on each side of which was a deep 
chasm, in which could be seen the bones of camels, 
which had evidently at different times, lost their foot- 
ing and perished. Pasturage on the plateau was good, 
and the camels fairly revelled in it. 

After leaving the plateau they descended on to a wide 
plain of gravelly soil, flanked by two great sandy 
deserts known as the Eastern and Western " Great 
Erg " respectively. The word " erg " in Arabic means 
sand-hill, and these two vast deserts consist of wide 
expanses of dunes of soft sand stretching almost uninter- 
ruptedly from Morocco on the west to Tripoli on the 
east, a dreary and difficult march for man and beast. 
In this region the guide completely lost his way, and 
had it not been for the " mehariste," or camel-driver, 
the caravan might have been in serious difficulties. 
But Hassy Inifel, a small French military post, was 
safely reached. Three days' march brought them to 



A TRAMP ACROSS THE SAHARA 111 

the next well, Zmeila, but the " mehariste " had again 
to come to the rescue, for the stupid guide fell asleep on 
his camel, and when brought to realise his responsibilities 
by a sharp application of Haywood's riding whip, de- 
clared that they were lost. After this the journey was 
accomplished to Ouargla. 

Between Ouargla and Touggourt there were wells 
almost every day, and except for the heat there was 
nothing very trying in the marches compared with what 
had gone before. Touggourt is within touch of civilisa- 
tion, for tourists, or a few of the most enterprising 
among them, come here by the coach in the Biskra season 
and put up at the curious little hotel of which the place 
boasts. 

Here the journey practically finished, at any rate so 
far as the desert was concerned. 

[The information in this chapter has been derived from 
Captain Haywood's book, Through Timhuctu and Across 
the Great Sahara, by kind permission of the author.] 




«l 



CHAPTER IX 

THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

It was in 1882 that Mr. Swann first planted his foot in 
Zanzibar, then the greatest slave market in the world. 
Thousands of poor wretches were captured in the interior 
of the continent and marched down to the coast to be 
shipped to the island and there sold as slaves almost 
under the shadow of the British Consulate, so daring 
and so wily were the methods of the Arabs at this 
profitable game. The reasons for his being there were 
these. The London Missionary Society had received 
a large donation from a supporter for the express 
purpose of commencing mission work around the great 
Lake Tanganyika. As the undertaking was certain to 
be an expensive one it was decided to utilise the more 
economical transport by water in order to get into 
contact with the tribes living along a coast line of nine 
hundred to one thousand miles. 

The expedition was organised to enable the Society 
to occupy these regions. Captain Hore, who commanded 
the expedition, and Swann, second in command, were 
instructed to transport a small life-boat and to build 
the s.s. Good News as soon as the material could be 
sent to them ; to survey the lake, and to organise and 
maintain a regular mail service between the Mission 
Stations and Zanzibar. 

Knowledge of the interior at that time was very 

vague, and it was only such men as Livingstone, 

Stanley, and others who opened the eyes of the world to 

the potentialities of the land, its enormous population, 

« U3 



114 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

and its vast natural resources and treasure. The great 
partition of Africa by the European Powers had not 
yet taken place, and not one of the now great Protector- 
ates of East Africa, Uganda and Nyasaland, had become 
a part of the British Empire. The whole of the East 
Coast and the interior was either in the hands of native 
chiefs, Arabs, or Marina half-castes who had all one 
object, and whose ambition was to sell and transport to 
the coast as many of the inhabitants as they could 
possibly capture. It is true that commanders of British 
gunboats and British officials at Zanzibar did their 
utmost with the limited powers at their command to 
bring pressure to bear upon the Sultan of Zanzibar, 
and to check the slave trade at the coast, but none 
knew better than themselves how inadequate were 
their combined efforts. At best they only touched the 
fringe of the disease, which had its ramifications all 
over Equatorial Africa, and its great centres far away 
up-country at Tabora, Ujiji, Uganda, Kolakota, and 
the Upper Congo. Swann's youthful imagination had 
been fired by the stories of barbarous and hideous 
cruelty exercised by the slave raiders, and when the 
chance was offered to him he literally jumped at it. 

The bombardment of Alexandria was about to take 
place, but they passed through the Suez Canal before 
traffic was stopped, and in due course reached Zanzibar, 
where gloomy predictions were foretold of a disastrous 
end to their long tramp of eight hundred and twenty 
miles into the unknown, through dense grass, over 
mountains, through rivers and swamps, towards their 
far-distant goal. The problem of carriage was the all- 
important one to occupy their attention. Roads, of 
course, did not exist ; narrow native paths overhung 
with grass ten or twelve feet high effectually prevented 
the employment of wheeled vehicles. Everything must 
be m^^de up into portable packages and carried on tl^^ 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 115 

heads of native porters. The most difficult matter to 
solve was the question of " cash." Coinage, of course, 
to the natives of the interior had no value ; cash of the 
expedition consisted of cahco, beads, brass wire, salt,, 
and such-like articles wherewith to pay wages, make 
presents, and use in bartering with natives. The wages 
of the porters was to be two yards of unbleached calico 
per week. They had to engage nine hundred porters, 
the journey would take about nine months, and a supply 
of provisions for one year had to be taken, so it will be 
readily seen to what formidable proportions the com- 
missariat extended. Much anxious care was devoted to 
making up the bundles each porter was to carry, and 
which should not exceed sixty pounds in weight ; 
articles were discarded as unnecessary, then on second 
consideration replaced and others rejected. In addition 
to all this the transport of the Morning Star was a 
serious consideration. This being built of steel, was 
divided into sections and laid bottom upward on speci- 
ally constructed hand-carts, light and yet strong, made 
narrow in order to minimise the cutting down of trees. 
Sets of harness were rigged up, made of rope, to fit three 
men to drag the carts, one man being in the shafts. To 
the great amusement of the crowd one of the men in 
the shafts solemnly exclaimed, " Yes, there is no 
mistake about it, I am a donkey at last ! " 

The eventful day at length arrived when the party 
crossed the twenty-five mile strip of sea which separated 
Zanzibar from the mainland, and pitched their tents 
near the shore. The sun disappeared behind some 
lofty coco-nut palm trees, and insect life swarmed out 
to enjoy the cool air. Then commenced those choruses 
of sounds from pool, bush and tall rank grasses, which 
never cease to serenade African travellers. Mosquitoes 
in great numbers were buzzing around ears of all, 
stinging th^ ankles (a favourite spot), neck, face ancj 



116 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

hands. At first they tried to pass the whole thing off as 
a joke, or at most a temporary annoyance ; but first 
one, then another European had business in his tent, 
until all were found safely in bed under their mosquito- 
curtains. 

The first morning in Africa was ushered in by a pleas- 
ant bugle-call, and the morning mists still hung like a 
soft mantle a few feet above the long low sea-shore. 
Babel but faintly describes the howling of that half- 
civilised crowd, as with strained countenances they 
scanned the pile of miscellaneous packages, each man 
mentally appropriating to himself the smallest, softest, 
and what he judged the lightest load. It must be borne 
in mind that a mistake at this first selection of loads 
would certainly mean a tremendous addition to the 
ordinary physical strain of carrying such a burden for 
three months ; an awkward load, or even one extra 
pound of weight might not only cause painful sores on 
either head or shoulders, but so handicap the bearer 
as to make his pace the slowest in the caravan ; and 
dragging wearily along, far in the rear of his more 
fortunate companions, he would finally either throw 
away his load out of sheer inability to carry it into camp, 
or be murdered for the sake of its intrinsic value by 
those villains who, being too idle to work, infest certain 
uninhabited portions of the track, shooting down the 
lonely and tired porter. 

On the word given by the headman the porters hurled 
themselves upon the packages and then ensued a lively 
scene of jostling, pushing, gesticulation and recrimina- 
tion, but finally things quietened down, and each man's 
name and load were entered on a list. All these prelimin- 
aries being settled it was decided to start on the following 
day. During the afternoon a visit was paid by the head- 
man of the town of Saadani and his followers. Although 
a slave-trader, he promised them all the assistance in 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 117 

his power, and kept his promise ; but they were hot to 
know that the smiUng son who walked beside him would 
prove to be the treacherous murderer of a white com- 
panion, Arthur Brooks. A visit to their village proved 
it to be a strange mixture of gaudiness and filth. 

Next morning the long trek was begun at six a.m., the 
head porter, known as a " kilangozi," leading the way. 
He is a man chosen on account of his intimate knowledge 
of what might be called " the rule of the road." In 
addition to being physically strong, he must know what 
paths to avoid, and this is by no means an easy task 
where the vegetation is dense, and no conspicuous 
landmarks can be used as a guide to camp. He must 
never omit to close all paths which he does not wish 
those who follow to take. This is done by placing on 
the path either a few leaves or sticks, or, if these are 
not procurable, he simply draws a line across with 
his spear. 

Swann's first attempt to shoot game on the African 
continent proved a failure, for attempting to stalk a 
fine harte-beest he plunged into a mass of thorn bush 
for cover, and suffered much in the process. The com- 
motion he created in extricating himself alarmed the 
animal, and it was off like the wind. Swann and his boy 
circled round for some time in search of other game and 
at last reached a village, where a white man was evi- 
dently a novelty. They gazed at him for a long time 
seemingly very much interested in his boots. He asked 
his boy what they said. " That you have hoofs like a 
zebra." He assured them his feet were like their own, 
but they shook their heads, so he pulled off his boots, 
only to be surprised by a burst of merriment. " Now 
they declare you have no toes," said the boy. So 
Swann pulled off his socks, and they yelled " He's 
white all over ! " " Yes, I am," he exclaimed, " and you 
must take it on trust, for no more clothes will be removed 



118 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

for your pleasure." He then pulled out his pipe and 
struck a match which had the effect of clearing the 
audience in all directions. "Now we know," they 
exclaimed, " that you are a spirit, for you can carry fire 
in your clothes without being burned." 

When the band reached Mamboia, Swann was bowled 
over by a bad attack of fever, which well-nigh finished 
his career, but he recovered, and, together with Captain 
Hore, retraced their journey of one hundred and thirty- 
six miles to the coast to bring back certain parts of the 
boat which had not arrived when they started, and 
reached Zanzibar in eight days. They soon had the 
carts ready and again started up-country. It is all very 
well marching along a narrow path, but to draw wheeled 
vehicles is another matter. Every rock and tree-stump 
was a vexatious hindrance, and it required a company of 
'axe-men to clear away obstacles. The men pulled, 
perspired, and said things. A broken trace, a capsize, 
up to the axle in mud, wheel off, etc. etc., would be a 
fair summary of the daily life and the pin-pricks they 
had to endure for three months. Two boat sections 
weighed three hundred pounds each, and four others 
two hundred and thirty pounds each, besides the carts 
on which they were lashed ; the path seldom exceeded 
two feet in width, with trees and tall grasses growing 
up to the edge. Picture this condition for eight hundred 
and twenty-five miles, and one must agree that they 
were a brave set of black men. 

As they were travelling through the Mukondokwa 
Valley Swann gained an insight into the native 
character. The high grass was nearly dry, and one 
evening shortly after dinner he heard the ominous 
crackling of a grass fire quite close to the tent, and his 
men making a fearful noise. Calling Tom, his boy, he 
asked the reason. " Fire ! master, fire ! " he cried. 
Swann saw ruin staring him in the face as he pictured 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 119 

the boat, tent, calico, rifles, ammunition, and outfit, 
adding to the general conflagration. In the space of a 
few seconds the tent was down, and everything removed 
to a safe place. None too soon, as, directly afterwards, 
the fire passed over the very spot. He rewarded the 
men who were most energetic in subduing the flames, 
but had not long retired to rest before a second alarm 
was raised, and again the same process was repeated, 
and small presents distributed. But by this time he 
had become suspicious of trickery, so, pitching the 
tent on a burnt patch of ground, he awaited events. 

As he expected the grass was fired in another direc 
tion, and, on being called, he replied " Let it burn ! " 
for he knew it was only a plot to extort presents. They 
had purposely set it alight ; but, as he was alone, he 
deemed it prudent to wait for daylight. The next 
morning confirmed his suspicions. Tom, the boy, in an 
undertone said to him, " Master no yet speak our 
language — not know black men. Porters not much bad 
and not very good. They play with you as you are new 
to country. Master, never put tent up in grass ; plenty 
fire." "All right, Tom," Swann replied. "Master 
plenty wake up after breakfast." After breakfast the 
head-man of the party was publicly reminded that a 
white man takes a serious objection to unnecessary 
excitement in camp after the labours of the day are 
supposed to be over. There were no more fires ! 

They arrived at M'pwapwa and joined the rest of 
their company who had been kicking their heels at their 
tedious sojourn at this uninteresting place. It formed a 
convenient halting-place for slave caravans from the 
interior to the coast. One of these caravans passed 
through while they were there, and a conversation with 
one of the head-men enlightened Swann as to the dia- 
bolical treatment of the wretched slaves, most of whom 
were lacerated by the " chikole," a lash of hide. The 



120 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

head-men were a villainous looking lot, but were very 
polite and answered Swann's questions readily. 

He remarked to one of them that some of the slaves 
were quite unfit to carry loads. He smiled and answered, 
" They have no choice ! They must go or die .' " 

" Are all these slaves destined for Zanzibar ? " 

" Most of them ; the remainder will stay at the coast." 

" Have you lost many on the road ? " 

" Yes ; numbers have died of hunger." 

"^ Any run away ? " 

" No, they are too well guarded. Only those who 
become possessed with the devil try to escape ; there 
is nowhere they could run to if they should go." 

" What do you do when they become too ill to 
travel ? " 

" Spear them at once," was the fiendish reply. " For 
if we did not others would pretend they were ill in order 
to avoid carrying their loads. No ! we never leave 
them alive on the road. They all know our custom." 

" I see women carrying not only a child on their backs, 
but, in addition, a tusk of ivory or other burden on 
their heads. What do you do in their case when they 
become too weak to carry child and ivory ? Who 
carries the ivory ? " 

" She does ! We cannot leave valuable ivory on the 
road. We spear the child and make her burden lighter. 
Ivory first, child afterwards ! " 

Swann could have struck the demon dead at his feet. 

He was helpless, but it is pleasant to reflect that he 
was then looking on the last slave caravan permitted to 
leave the mainland, for a strong letter of protest to 
England caused pressure to be brought to bear on the 
Sultan of Zanzibar. 

The party broke camp and had a heart-breaking 
journey through the plains of Ugogo, for thorny bushes 
and rugged country rendered the march not one to be 




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THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 121 

forgotten. This locality was inhabited by a powerful 
and truculent race of ruffians, the Wagogo, who made 
most impudent and extortionate demands as payment 
for the water asked for. They reached the much- 
dreaded Mgunda-Mkali wilderness, a plateau of about 
eight hundred feet high, a most difficult climb rendered 
doubly distressing by the absence of water. In this 
neighbourhood they discovered the skeletons of their 
four mail-men who had been murdered by robbers, with 
the fragments of letters strewn in all directions, but as 
there were seven skulls it proved that they had not 
succumbed without making a stiff fight. 

It had long been Swann's ambition to shoot a bull 
buffalo, and when marching through the country of the 
Unyamwezi he came across the spoor of one on the edge 
of a swamp. He was armed with only a cavalry carbine, 
and disregarding all cautions as to the dangerous 
nature of a wounded buffalo, began to follow the spoor 
through a tangled mass of vegetation. He emerged, 
followed by Tom, his boy, and saw seven buffaloes 
quietly grazing. The two men threw themselves flat on 
the ground, but a water-buck taking fright disturbed 
the herd, who began prancing about whirling their tails 
round in a vicious fashion. A large bull stood broadside 
on, and seeing that no time was to be lost Swann rested 
the carbine against a tree and fired at his left shoulder. 
He fell, and his companions disappeared in a cloud of 
dust. He recovered himself and glared round for his 
assailant. Thinking the animal was mortally wounded 
Swann had foolishly exposed himself and the bull 
spied him at once, and charged down on him with his 
head held high and his nostrils distended. Having 
reloaded immediately Swann was ready ; but a charging 
wounded buffalo is not easily stopped. Dropping on 
one knee and aiming for his chest he pulled the trigger, 
praying the bullet would strike his heart. Whether it 



122 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

did or not made not the slightest difference to his 
terrific speed. 

Down went his head for the charge. There was only 
one thing to do to escape certain death, and so, waiting 
until he was quite close Swann flung his sun-helmet in 
his face and threw himself sideways into the bush 
simultaneously. The infuriated beast thundered over 
the spot he had knelt on, missing him by inches as he 
lay flat on the ground, and only his great impetus 
prevented him from swerving quickly enough to catch 
him with his horns. The animal crashed into some 
young trees and stood still while blood flowed from his 
nostrils, chest and shoulder ; truly the beast looked 
terrible in his rage. Swann gave him no time to recover, 
and another bullet through the shoulder finished the 
battle, the mighty beast rolling over dead. It was a 
narrow escape. In the light of after experience he 
learnt the folly of attacking a buffalo with nothing but 
a carbine. 

On their arrival at Urambo they were visited by 
Mirambo the powerful chief of the Unyamwezi. He was 
dreaded by most tribes in those parts and spoken 
unfavourably of by Europeans, who imagined him to 
be a cruel chief delighting in war and plunder. But they 
found him upright, manly, great, and years of close 
contact with him proved him to be loyal to all who 
merited his friendship. Near Urambo is a small com- 
munity of Zulus, called Angone, who remained there 
when the tribe retreated south. They were hired by 
Mirambo for warlike purposes, as they were greatly 
feared by the neighbouring people. The party had now 
completed a march of six hundred miles from the coast 
and two hundred more would bring them to Tanganyika. 

They had now arrived near to the first slave-depot 
of Unyanyembe. Arabs, financed by wealthy merchants 
in Zanzibar, ruled the district and kept up communica- 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 123 

tion with the other depots at Ujiji, the Victoria Nyanza, 
and Upper Congo, forwarding large quantities of ivory 
and annual consignments of slaves to the coast. The 
Arab system extended to great distances, and, octopus- 
like, grasped every small unprotected village community, 
making the whole country a vast battlefield wherein no 
one was safe outside the stockades. As they passed 
westward on their journey they noticed that in this 
country none of the villages was stockaded, showing the 
feeling of security that prevailed, and that food was 
readily obtainable. But as they travelled away from the 
capital and the villages became more exposed to attack 
from the frontier, every town was surrounded by a 
stockade, consisting of poles about ten feet high, 
closely bound together, and inserted into the earth. 
Along the top of them thorns are often added. Where 
lions infest the neighbourhood this plan is always 
adopted, although they have been known to leap over 
and tear off the grass of huts at night, killing the 
occupants. Game was abundant everywhere, but the 
numerous pits dug for the capture of wild animals made 
it risky to hunt except with great care. 

It has often been said that lions, if they spring at and 
miss their prey, will turn away disgusted. While here, 
Swann had an opportunity of proving it. A man who had 
been out chopping firewood, armed with merely a small 
axe, rushed into the camp crying out that a lion had 
sprung at him. As he showed no signs of damage, and 
was practically unarmed, his story was received with 
jeers, but he led them to the spot, and showed them an 
ant-hill, from the top of which the brute had sprung, 
bearing the deep furrows of the claws of his hind paws, 
and exactly twenty yards away were the marks where 
he had landed. The belief in charms and medicine is 
deeply rooted in the mind of the African, so it could 
have been nothing but the man's strong medicine which 



124 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

saved his life. Firm in this beUef Tom begged some of 
the man's charm, and it was his trust in this that brought 
about his sad end some time later. 

The Malagarasi river was reached, a rapid stream 
flowing into Lake Tanganyiki below Ujiji, the ferry- 
rights of which were claimed by a petty chief who dwelt 
on the farther side, and so was out of the jurisdiction of 
Mirambo. He proved to be a sharp man of business, 
and after a good deal of haggling, during which negotia- 
tions were perilously near the breaking point, he agreed 
to take the party across for two yards of calico per head. 
The stream was swift, the canoes as cranky as racing 
skiffs, and crocodiles lurked everywhere. However, all 
the porters were transferred to the opposite side, and 
then the problem of the transport of the carts remained 
to be solved. Fearing that the old man on seeing these 
would repudiate all responsibility and perhaps remove 
the canoes, Swann seized the whole lot, and by lashing 
poles across them made a strong platform onto which 
the vehicles and their precious burdens were secured. 
The wily natives looked on without comment, but when 
all was ready for a start they demanded double payment, 
refusing to be responsible for loss if the canoes capsized. 
They were paid at once, and without mishap a most 
formidable obstacle was negotiated. 

The Wavinza presented a marked contrast to Miram- 
bo's people, for their villages were untidy, scattered, and 
many were wrecked by slave-raiders. The result was 
that the men took to highway robbery in order to 
support their families, and Swann was compelled to 
station guards at intervals along the road to protect 
his own people. 

They crossed the Lusigi river with very little difficulty, 
and messengers were despatched to Ujiji to herald their 
arrival. Tanganyika was at hand ! The view came in 
sight at last — just a narrow strip of the great lake 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 125 

gleaming in the sun in the distance between the trees, 
and enhvening each member of the party with the 
assurance that to-morrow they would be in Ujiji. For 
hours they crept through muddy paths, the haunts of 
hippopotami, until they emerged upon the pleasant- 
looking Ruiche river, the last they had to cross. Next 
day they slowly marched into Ujiji, a compact body, 
the firing of guns and beating of drums awakening 
the inhabitants to come and look. The journey of 
eight hundred and twenty-five miles was ended, and the 
subsequent arrival of two hundred more loads completed 
the success of the largest East African expedition. 
Stanley, years before, took seven months to get to Ujiji, 
whereas they had taken only three, showing clearly 
that facilities for transport were increasing rapidly. 

The human donkeys, harnessed to their carts, went 
mad with excitement. Not one had deserted over that 
long and difficult journey, and, unable to restrain them- 
selves, they rushed down on to the sands with their 
carts, flung themselves en masse into the Tanganyika, 
shouting to the waves, " We have brought you a child 
from the white man's land, to ride on your back, to 
breathe your winds, to sleep on your breast — God is 
Great ! " 

The mighty Tanganyika lay at Swann's feet, extending 
for hundreds of miles. The dark mountain range of 
Goma, on the opposite side, was visible about forty-five 
miles distant. Beyond this could be pictured the Congo 
with its mysteries, cannibalism and wealth. Swann 
tried to enter into Livingstone's thoughts as he stood 
here, wondering whether this mass of water was the 
source of the Nile. He knew that at this spot Africa's 
greatest missionary explorer was found by the intrepid 
Stanley. It was an historic spot. Here centred all the 
villainy which for centuries had cruelly oppressed the 
coloured races, and here the Arabs were, as they thought, 



126 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

established in their impregnable fortress. An Arab 
who had been standing by, watching him, broke into his 
reverie, and after some conversation Swann said : 

" Did you meet Livingstone ? Were you here when 
he came ? " 

" If you mean a white man, I do not know him by 
that name," he replied. 

Swann was disappointed, but said, " Don't you 
remember a man with a peaked cap, who carried medi- 
cines about, who was always looking for, and asking 
questions about rivers and lakes, who never purchased 
slaves or ivory ? Have you never heard he was met 
here by another white man named Stanley ? " 

A smile played about his face as he extended his hand, 
exclaiming, " You must mean Baba Daud and Bula 
Matali ! " 

" Those are the men," Swann replied. " ' Father 
David ' and ' The Stone Breaker ' ! " 

Ujiji was really ruled by the Arabs, though nominally 
by a native chief; most of the powerful and wealthy 
Arabs lived here, superintending the transport of 
ivory and slaves which came from the west. Both the 
famous Tip-pu-Tib, and his partner Rumaliza, had their 
principal houses in the town. The former associated 
himself with, and assisted, all the early travellers ; the 
latter eventually fought against the Belgians for the 
Upper Congo. 

The country to the east of Ujiji had long been denuded 
of ivory, and that which entered Zanzibar came from 
the regions west of Tanganyika, where elephants 
abounded and ivory could be obtained for a trifle. The 
town was a curious mixture of luxury and squalor ; 
ivory representing many thousands of pounds was 
scattered about. Diseased slaves jostled gaudily dressed 
women of the same household. Slaves were in evidence 
everywhere, whilst brutal half-caste fighting -nien 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 127 

lounged in the verandahs of the great. It was a whited 
sepulchre. Small-pox was rife, and those who were 
beyond hope were taken to the shores of the lake to 
be devoured by the crocodiles. 

The party lived amongst the Wajiji, a bright and in- 
dustrious people who held large markets every day for 
food in exchange for calico, salt, beads and brass wire. 



CHAPTER X 

THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

It did not take the quick-witted Arabs long to perceive 
that the advent of the Europeans meant the downfall of 
their own supremacy, though their courtesy never 
abated. But Swann distrusted their smooth manner 
and glib tongues more than he feared their drawn 
daggers. They showed their dislike in pin -pricks by 
placing all sorts of obstacles in the way of the new 
arrivals which, trivial though they might seem, were 
extremely irritating. It was necessary for the comfort 
of the workers on the new boat that a grass hut should 
be erected to protect them from the sun. But to this 
the Arabs objected, for it would mean taking possession 
of the country, so Swann requested them to provide 
umbrellas and men to hold them all day long, and then 
the absurdity of their contention dawned on them, and 
they gave in, but only on the condition that the hut 
should be destroyed directly the boat was launched. 
The building of a metal boat excited general amaze- 
ment ; it could not float ; if a small iron rivet quickly 
sank to the bottom of the river, was it likely that a 
mass of iron plates could float on the surface. 

The boat was completed, and preparations made for 
launching it ; but the inevitable pin-prick followed, for 
the Arabs refused to allow the boat to be moved. 
" You have been entrusted to us," said they, " and we 
are responsible to the Sultan of Zanzibar for your safety. 
If you leave us and come to harm, what shall we say 
to him." " If you hinder us," said Swann, " we shall 
^end ^ complaint to the Sultan, which will take five 

128 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 129 

months, and will demand compensation for delay, and 
that will be exacted from you." The Arabs were touched 
on their vulnerable point, and gave way. The vessel 
was launched the very next day, and the hut pulled 
down. The fatted calf was killed, and eaten perhaps 
by the most picturesque guests imaginable. They left 
Ujiji as soon as possible and established a depot at 
Kavala Island, then sailed to the south to receive the 
material for building the first steam yacht to navigate 
the great lakes. During the first and second years 
numerous voyages were made in the small boat for the 
purposes of survey work and establishing friendly 
relations with the native chiefs. 

To be in that open boat beating two hundred and 
fifty miles against the south-east monsoon was an 
experience in yachting not to be surpassed anywhere. 
From east to west coast, by night and day she thrashed 
against the white-crested waves, drenching all on 
board. Her native crew would hide behind grass mats, 
under the thwarts, when the heavy clouds burst and a 
tornado of rain and wind descended, threatening to 
capsize the boat. The inky darkness was pierced by 
sheets of fire accompanied by thunder. 

To be on a level with, and often beneath, the crests 
of the waves was a different thing from walking on the 
bridge of an ocean liner. Waterspouts were common, 
rushing about from one side of the lake to the other 
like demons ; in fact the natives call them " devils' 
tails." Fortunately they always missed the boat, but 
the accompanying whirlwind drove it about as if it 
had been a cork on the waters. 

A permanent camp was formed among the Walungu, 
some distance up the Lopi River, at the south end of 
the lake. These people, who were once a numerous 
tribe, had been so harried and scattered by the slave 
raiders that they had finally taken refuge in huts built 



130 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

on the sud which had collected in the middle of the river. 
Ugly crocodiles, huge hippopotami and an infinite 
variety of birds had their habitation here. 

Here the parts of the s.s. Good News arrived, and 
Swann and his party at once set to work to rivet the 
plates together. Recreation, however, was necessary 
to ward off threatened attacks of fever, and this was 
provided by the wild-fowl shooting so plentiful every- 
where. It was on one of these shooting expeditions 
that Swann lost his faithful little servant, Tom. Taking 
Tom and another boy with him they paddled up the 
river and hauled the canoe on to the bank at a certain 
spot. The water looked tempting and the boys wan- 
dered off chatting together and splashing through the 
shallow water. Swann warned them to be careful of 
crocodiles, but Tom laughed, and pointing to a small 
packet suspended round his neck, said, " Master, I am 
not afraid. See this packet ? It contains some of the 
medicine I bought on the road from that man who 
was nearly caught by the lion." " Don't be silly, 
boy," cried Swann. " Crocodiles are not scared by 
such things, and, besides, that particular charm is 
against lions, not crocodiles." " It's all the same," 
he laughingly answered ; "no beast can hurt me as 
long as I wear it. Muungu bass ! Only God ! " At 
that moment a large piece of banana stalk floating down 
the stream caught Tom's eye, and boy-like he deter- 
mined to have it. He plunged in and made for his 
prize. Swann shouted, " Come back, you young fool ! " 
but at that moment Tom disappeared, evidently strug- 
gling with something under the water, and instantly a 
crocodile's tail swished out of the water as it forced 
itself downward with the faithful little servant and 
companion, to Swann's great sorrow. 

Complaints from neighbouring tribes of the depreda- 
tions of the Arabs induced Swann to send a request to 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 131 

the Arabs that the Hves and property of the unoffending 
people should be respected. To this they returned a 
most insulting reply, so Swann invited them to come and 
talk the matter over. To his surprise they immediately 
accepted, and a deputation of twenty-three Rugaruga, 
as truculent and villainous a looking band as could be 
raked together from anywhere, arrived. They were 
arrayed in black monkey skins and carried spears and 
muzzle-loading guns. Their tone at first was very 
offensive, but Swann's determined attitude, backed by 
the ostentatious display of three six-chambered revolvers, 
brought them to their senses, and after some stern 
words of warning they departed in a somewhat chastened 
mood. They were a truculent set of bullies and black- 
guards, as well as arrant cowards. Although they left 
the little band alone they wreaked their spite on all the 
villages of the beautiful Lofu river until only two or 
three were left standing. 

As has been said, the neighbourhood of the camp 
abounded in game, great and small, and of this Swann, 
who was a keen sportsman, took every advantage. On 
one occasion, having shot some Egyptian geese from a 
canoe, he and his boy Kabatawe, successor to poor Tom, 
paddled up a narrow creek to pick up the birds 
which lay on a mud-fiat. No sooner had they entered 
the creek and run on to the mud than a hippo 
rose behind them, right in the entrance to the creek, 
grunting in an unpleasant manner, and evidently 
annoyed at their presence. Kabatawe leaped overboard 
in an instant, bang into the soft mud, and there he 
remained up to his waist, a picture of utter helplessness. 
The hippo plunged about only a few yards distant, 
looking as if he meant making trouble. " Shoot, 
master, shoot ! Pull me out ! Mother ! I shall die ! " 
and similar remarks came from the lad in rapid 
succession. Extracting the cartridges from the gun, 



132 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

Swann held it out to him, and pulled him into the 
canoe. 

The mud was too soft to attempt trying to land, and 
the brute remained bobbing up and down, right in the 
only track by which it was possible to escape, and to 
fire duck-shot at him was to court disaster. Swann told 
his boy to take his paddle and, the next time the hippo 
disappeared under water to push the canoe gently off 
the mud. The brute must have heard the movements, 
for he at once became excited, turning half-somersaults 
in the water, a well-known practice of theirs when 
irritated, equivalent to the action of a bull pawing the 
ground. As the evening was coming on and he feared an 
attack Swann saw that the only thing possible was to 
make a dash for it, so he said, " Now boy, give me that 
other paddle, and the next time he disappears, paddle 
for all you are worth." As the w^ater closed over the 
beast's ugly head they dashed out ; a few desperate 
strokes sent the canoe across the stream, passing over 
the spot where he had last been seen, and as they rushed 
into the opposite reeds and sprang on shore he rose and 
plunged forward, catching the stern of the canoe in his 
jaws, smashing the side and filling it with water. It was 
a narrow escape ! 

At length the last rivet was hammered in, and the 
Good News' was launched. The old sceptic who on a 
former occasion had doubted the ability of an iron boat 
to float was present. Swann said to him, " What about 
the lump of iron swimming now ? " " You put medicine 
into it," he answered. " Never mind about the medi- 
cine," said Swann, " I told you it would swim. Does 
it ? " " Yes, it does," he answered ; " and I'll believe 
anything you tell me after this." This was, indeed, a 
swing of the pendulum in the opposite direction, with 
a vengeance. 

There are some who deny that the negro has any 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 133 

depth of feeling ; that all his feelings are displayed on 

the surface. This Swann denies, and gives an account 
of a duel between two lovers of which he was elected 
umpire, and the suicide of the loved one. Two young 
men loved the same girl, and both deposited the usual 
presents with her relatives. Tliis was against the custom, 
and trouble followed, for one of the lovers, losing patience, 
carried the girl off to his ovm. \dllage. By rights, the two 
villages should have taken up arms, but in this case it 
was decided the rivals should fight a duel, and that the 
victor should secure the girl, but that the duel should 
not be to the death — that it should be fought T\dth spears, 
and that the first wound to draw blood should secure 
the \4ctory. If, however, the wounded man died, the 
girl was to go to his next of kin. Swann was in the 
harbour at the time, and the chief requested him to 
leave, as he feared the crew might favour one side or 
the other, and so cause fiuiher trouble. But Swann 
reassured him on this point, as he was anxious to see so 
unique a proceeding, but he had no power to stop it. 
After some private consultation between the chief and 
his advisers, to Swann's great surprise he was asked to 
act as referee and judge. To this he consented on con- 
dition they agreed to accept his verdict as final, but he 
refused to have anything to do with the disposal of the 
girl. To this they assented. 

A great and excited crowd had assembled when the 
two men came forward, both looking sullen ; they 
carried ugly looking spears, \^ith shafts about six feet 
long. The particulars of the quarrel and the conditions 
of the fight were shouted out and assented to both by 
the spectators and the duellists. After ordering all arms 
to be safely put away by the spectators, the word was 
given to the rivals to " Go on ! " Both were fine speci- 
mens of men, and covered with grease. 

Swann naturally expected a mad rush, but nothing 



134 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

of the sort followed. They stood quite still, only leaning 
forward just sufficiently to allow both blades to come 
well into contact. Their eyes were fixed on each other ; 
they bent forward towards the ground, the muscles of 
their arms quivering as each tried to press the spear of 
the other on one side so as to get a clear thrust. Perspira- 
tion ran down their bodies ; physically they appeared 
to be equally matched. This bending to the ground to 
get in the first blow was a calculated manoeuvre, and as 
an exhibition of fencing with the spear it was worth 
witnessing. 

Weight began to tell in favour of the older man, and 
suddenly he brought more pressure to bear on the blade. 
The youngster gave way, there was a swift lunge for- 
ward, and the next instant both were sprawling on the 
sand ; the sudden release of the weapons threw them off 
their balance, and quick as lightning the youngster as he 
fell passed his spear through the thick part of his oppon- 
ent's thigh. As they came to the earth the spear snapped, 
and the defeated man was gripping his spear to stab 
his fallen conqueror when Mr. Swann seized his wrist, 
and putting his revolver close to his face called, " Drop 
it ! You have lost ! " The exulting youngster was 
ordered off the ground and the wounded man carried 
away. The gash was a bad one, but the wound healed 
in three weeks. 

But the real tragedy was to come. About midnight 
Swann was awakened by heart-broken outbursts of 
grief from the high rocks, in a woman's voice. Followed 
by his crew he went in pursuit fearing the poor creature 
might be attacked by leopards, calling all the time to her 
to come back. Her only reply was a wail of grief. At 
last they caught sight of her standing on the top of a 
high cliff overlooking the lake ; in another moment, 
with a final wail, she was gone, and next morning her 
mangled body was found at the foot of the cliff. It was 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 135 

the maiden, the innocent cause of the duel — she had 
lost her lover, the wounded man. 

While in this district the camp was one night invaded 
by a herd of elephants, and of all the unpleasant night 
visitors they are most to be dreaded. Lions, leopards, 
hyaenas can all be driven off, but the elephants are serious 
invaders, commanding respect. Swann was awakened 
by terrified men rushing into his tent crying out, 
" Njovo, Bwana, Xjovo " (Elephants, master, elephants). 
The night was very dark, the camp-fires were alight but 
not blazing. Looking out he saw the huge brutes 
pitching about the tents and demoHshing the temporary 
huts of his men, while a little fox-terrier which always 
accompanied him made straight for an elephant which 
was busy smashing boxes and sending cooking utensils 
fl}ang in all directions. Very much annoyed he tried 
to seize his elusive tormentor \viih his trunk, but the 
terrier was too quick for him. Swann was no elephant 
hunter, and confesses to a sense of helplessness, a feeUng 
that he would be just as unsafe up a tree as on the 
ground. It was no use wounding one of them, for that 
might only complicate matters, but hoping to scare 
them he fired several shots in the air, whereupon they 
took the hint and decamped, fortunately missing all 
the frightened men who were hiding in the bush. One 
such experience in a lifetime was quite sufficient ! 

Shortly afterwards when passing through the Wan- 
konde country Swann narrowly escaped losing his life 
at the hands of one of the medicine-men. His desire 
to find out all that was possible about these professional 
men nearly caused him to pay a high price. One of 
these dreaded creatures lived among the rocks and 
enjoyed a high reputation for his uncanny powers. 
Swann importuned the chief to bring about an interview 
with the old impostor, but for a long time without 
success, each time receiving evasive replies. At length 



136 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

he gave way, after giving hidden warning of treachery, 
and washing his hands of all responsibility. The path 
was pointed out and Swann started, accompanied by 
several of his followers. They followed a rocky path 
strewn with bones, and at length came in sight of a hut, 
with a man sitting outside the door. 

He was indeed hideous ; around his loins were sus- 
pended gourds ; hanging to his arms were lions' claws ; 
several porcupine quills protruded from his hair ; and 
hanging from his shoulder was a dried snake-skin. He 
had evidently been told of the white man's approach, 
and was not at all disturbed. Handing him some beads 
Swann wished to know if he should have a safe passage 
down Nyasa. The man pointed to an inverted pot, 
making a series of passes with a buffalo's tail. After 
addressing to this pot a few sentences he leaned forward, 
making a vigorous pass over the ground, and from under 
the pot came a sharp whistle. This he interpreted as 
meaning that the voyage would be safely concluded. 

But Swann had noticed his vigorous action when 
bending forward, and suspected the application of 
muscular persuasion to the spirit ; and so, drawing his 
hunting-knife, he passed it sharply through the soft 
earth between him and the pot, when, as he expected, he 
dragged out a piece of bamboo which was connected 
with a bladder under the wizard's feet. By bending 
forward he had pressed the wind out of the bladder 
along the bamboo to the whistle under the pot, and the 
spirit spoke. 

Murder gleamed in the man's eyes ; he danced like a 
maniac. " Let the white men follow me," he shouted ; 
" I will show him the true spirit of the Wankonde," and 
marched out of the hut. " Quicker ! " he exclaimed, 
darting round a large rock almost hidden by dense 
undergrowth. 

Swann was about to respond to his invitation, when 




African Mimicry 

A native havino; seen a Hussar's busby, tries to go one better by 
making a much lighter one out ot leaves and adding another plume. 




In the Wake of the Slave Raiders 

A village raided by slave hunters, who have partially destroyed the huts and pitched away the 
cooking-pots. A solitary individual has crept back from his hiding-place to find his home desolate 
and all his relatives gone into slavery. Suicide is often the sequel. 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 137 

he was gripped from behind by one of his men as he 
shouted, " Look up there, master ; don't move ! " 
He followed with his eyes to where the man pointed, 
and there just above him hung a horrible spear, weighted 
and suspended by a rope over the path, across which, 
hidden by grass, was a small string placed so that anyone 
who touched it released the deadly spear. It was a game 
trap. One glance was enough. Swann stepped off the 
path, cut the string, and the instrument of death thun- 
dered down, burying its point in the path. The fiend 
had jumped over the string, knowing that Swann would 
trip up against it, and that the released spear would 
close his mouth, and so the secret would be preserved. 
In all Swann's twenty-six years' wanderings amongst 
Africans, this was his only experience of a dehberate 
attempt at assassination. 

While steaming down the Shire river which flows 
from the south end of Lake Nyasa, Swann had a novel 
experience in steeplechasing. The river was commanded 
by a chief named Mponda, and the captain informed 
him that he always had trouble here with the Arabs, 
when passing the place, sometimes being peremptorily 
ordered to anchor the ship. They had cut down a large 
tree and thrown it across the river to impede navigation. 
The captain said there was just sufficient water to get 
over it provided all stood in the hinder part, and then, 
as the vessel struck the tree, ran forward, thus trans- 
ferring the weight to the opposite end. It seemed a 
somewhat novel mode of navigation, but it was soon 
apparent the people on the shore meant to stop them 
and exact a heavy toll for passing down the river. They 
stood on the banks in great numbers, pointing their old 
fiint-lock guns as the vessel approached at full speed, 
only a few yards from the bank on which they were 
standing. Pointing ahead to a ripple in the water, 
the captain explained that it was caused by the current 



138 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

running over the sunken tree against which the people 
hoped the vessel would strike. They knew this would 
result in detention at their place, which would cost the 
party dearly. All on board congregated abaft, and 
as the ship mounted the tree the captain shouted, 
" Run as fast as you can ! " They did, and the little 
craft struggled over, with a heavy list into deep water 
on the other side. The wonder was it did not break 
the vessel's back. In those days no one stood at trifles. 
Things had to be done. Bullets followed them, but they 
steamed gaily onward, and were soon out of range. 

The further voyage down the river was exciting, for 
the frightened Makololo crew had bolted, so Swann and 
the captain had to share the duties of engineer and 
navigator, and the country being in a state of war they 
were constantly shot at from the banks, but a few rounds 
of buck-shot generally dispersed the hostile bands. 
They had now entered the Zambezi, and while taking in 
wood, Swann, accompanied by a boy, went in pursuit 
of game. After some time he missed the boy, and after 
a search found him writhing on the ground with a dead 
puff-adder close by him. Brandy there was none, and 
his knowledge of surgery was limited ; but something 
must be done, and done quickly, so taking out his knife 
he cut a wedge-shaped piece from the bitten part, then 
powdering some pith scraped from his helmet, he 
placed it on the wound and set fire to it, hoping to 
cauterize it, but without success, for the poor boy died 
within an hour. 

Swann had been warned before he left the coast 
against a band of roving Masai warriors, and he had 
good reason to remember the warning. For one after- 
noon his head-man came back to him with three warriors 
of the tribe in full war costume, which consisted of a 
pair of sandals, some chain ornaments suspended from 
their ears, and a girdle of leather to which was fastened 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 139 

a knife and tobacco-box. They were otherwise quite 
nude. In their hands they carried a long, broad-bladed 
spear, a cowhide shield, and a small knobkerrie. Swann 
did not know a word of Zulu, but his head-man explained 
that they required him to accompany them back to their 
main party. Swann slipped some cartridges into his 
Winchester repeating rifle, for although he knew the 
odds were ridiculous, nevertheless it looked like business, 
and was impressive. He then opened his umbrella with 
all the coolness he could summon, and followed. One 
of the warriors touched the umbrella, intimating that he 
would like to possess it. Swann, through his head-man, 
refused on the grounds that he had only one, and that as 
a Masai warrior would refuse to part with his stabbing- 
spear, neither would he part with his umbrella. The 
man then touched his coat, a white one, but Swann 
laughed to scorn the idea of a Masai warrior appearing 
in white ; he would be the butt for jeers and taunts of 
cowardice from his women folk, and besides, only 
medicine-men were allowed to paint themselves white. 
These retorts had the desired effect. They found the 
anxious party surrounded by an ominous-looking band 
of four hundred dusky warriors, all squatted behind 
their shields, with the ugly broad blades glinting above. 
Swann reproached them for hiding thus behind their 
shields as if they were ashamed to show the scars 
inflicted by their enemies. This nettled them, and after 
some fencing their leader, in rather a high-handed 
manner, said that he had heard of the white men and 
wished to see them. " Very well," said Swann, " now 
that you have satisfied your curiosity, we may be allowed 
to continue our journey." To clinch the matter he tore 
up several yards of calico, and soon every spear was 
decorated with a strip of cloth, after the fashion of the 
lances of cavalrymen. They had no other use for 
Manchester goods. This put a new complexion on the 



140 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

situation, and Swann seizing the opportunity took a 
twig, and invited the leader to break it with him, 
similar to our time-honoured custom of breaking a wish- 
bone as a sign of friendship. A promise given in this 
manner is held sacred, and is very seldom broken. The 
leader refused, and Swann taunted him with being only 
an inferior chief without power to make such contracts. 
This wounded his dignity as Swann intended it should. 
Tearing off another piece of cloth he tied it round his 
spear-head and again offered the twig. This time there 
was no hesitation ; the twig was broken, and the crisis 
past. Swann then tried to buy a spear or a shield for 
calico, but without success. One of the leaders, however, 
made him a present of his ebony knobkerrie, and this 
was a great concession, as it is equivalent to parting 
with one's favourite walking-stick. Swann stuck his 
piece of twig in the front of his cap, and said, " Good-bye! 
You see I carry the Masai mark of friendship before my 
eyes in order that I may not forget my promise to you." 
With a swinging trot the band then disappeared into the 
bush, as fine a lot of half- wild men as one could wish to 
see anywhere. 

Shortly after this incident, whilst passing through the 
Wanyamwezi country he was churlishly refused per- 
mission to draw water from a well, and water they must 
have. Swann believed in adopting native customs to 
settle native difficulties, as the negroes did not under- 
stand the white man's reasoning or method of procedure. 
If two men quarrel over a piece of land, a pot filled with 
medicine is deposited on the ground in dispute, and so 
long as it is on guard neither the land nor its produce 
may be touched by anyone. Swann adopted this plan 
to meet his own case. He took a white bottle and a 
spear, buckled on his revolver, and made his way to the 
well, which he found guarded by a dozen men with 
spears. He approached them, and, driving the spear into 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 141 

the ground placed the inverted bottle on the other end, 
at the same time reminding them of their custom. 
This was indeed carrying the war into their own country 
and upset all their preconceived ideas. Their consterna- 
tion was great, but protestations and expostulations 
were vain ; no one must pass the medicine and no one 
must remove it except the one who had placed it there. 
Time passed on, the sun was declining, and the women 
were clamouring for water for the evening meal, so a 
deputation was despatched to the chief who gave his 
consent reluctantly. But to make them pay for their 
churlishness Swann determined to carry the farce still 
farther, and declared that the medicine bottle must be 
covered with the blood of a goat, and its flesh eaten by 
him and his followers. The goat was forthcoming. He 
then said that the taboo could only be removed by his 
revolver, and stepping within easy range he fired and 
blew the bottle to pieces. There was a wild stampede 
for the water by natives and visitors, and so the comedy 
came to a satisfactory conclusion. 

While hunting one day, Swann narrowly escaped 
a terrible death. He had been following a slight track 
through the bush, and coming to a clump of bushes 
pushed through them rather hurriedly, closing his eyes 
as a protection from the branches. In a second he fell 
headlong into a game pit. Luckily his rifle was fixed at 
safety and did not explode. He alighted at the bottom, 
partly on his head and elbows, with his feet in the air. 
His position, he confessed, must have been ludicrous as 
seen from the top of the pit. The sun-helmet was 
jammed over his eyes, and he lay all of a heap, partially 
stunned, with nose bleeding freely, and face somewhat 
damaged. " Spikes " were his first thought, as he knew 
they were used in most pits. Scarcely daring to feel, 
he rolled over into a more comfortable position, dragged 
off his impromptu mask, and caught sight of a horrid 



142 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

sharp bamboo sticking up within a few inches of the 
spot where his head had struck the bottom. Three 
others, with their points slanting inwards so as to impale 
the falling game, were still looking upwards for a victim. 
Being too much shaken to move for a few minutes, he 
could only lie and look at those cruel points which had 
missed him by a few inches. Beyond a severe shaking 
of body and nerves he was not much the worse for this 
sudden let-down. His two black eyes were a source of 
amusement to his boys when they chatted over the fire. 
One little chap remarked : " Master went down white 
and came up partly black ; if he gets many more falls 
like that, we shall be all one colour ! " 



CHAPTER XI 

THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

Central Africa at this time was in the melting-pot, and 
" Spheres of Influence " were being mapped out by most 
of the Great European Powers. A strip of country to the 
north of Lake Tanganyika severed what would other- 
wise have been a continuous line from the Cape to Cairo. 
As the British Government wished to have a willing and 
amicable agreement with the owners before including it 
within their sphere of influence, Consul (now Sir Harry) 
Johnston requested Swann to make treaties with 
the chiefs of those parts. But Swann was between 
the horns of a dilemma. On the one hand there was 
the desire to obtain possession of a tract of country on 
which so much time and money had been expended, 
and the chance of it falling into the hands of a rival 
Power ; on the other the danger of incurring the censure 
of his Society which strictly forbade its servants to 
meddle in politics. After conferring with his colleagues, 
Swann decided to run the risk of censure, they 
declining to take any part in the enterprise. 

On his journey up the Lake he accepted, not without 
some slight feeling of trepidation, an invitation to take 
part in a hippopotamus hunt. The huge animals 
abounded in the Lake, their fat being brought for sale 
to all the local markets. The natives hunted the animal 
with spears in large canoes. It was not comfortable to 
go amongst a herd of snorting hippo in so frail a craft, 
but the natives did not seem to see danger. He did ! 
His canoe contained eight men beside himself. One at 
each end steered as required ; the remainder were 

143 



lU THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

armed with stabbing spears and paddles. They ap- 
proached the first herd, but could not get within striking 
distance. A native informed him that the only chance 
was to excite their anger, when they would charge. A 
truly pleasant prospect ! Swann, not being a very good 
swimmer, quietly unlaced his boots and trusted to 
Providence to help him out of an awkward corner. 
Three men sprang overboard and quietly swam towards 
the herd. On their approach a male hippo dived. The 
others shouted, " Come back ! " and in a few seconds 
the swimmers were on board. As the last one was 
dragged in, the hippo rose with a snort close to the spot 
where they had been swimming. Again he dived and 
rose a few yards from the canoe, opened his ugly mouth, 
and giving a vicious snort, flung his great head over the 
side of the canoe. All, except two, jumped to the op- 
posite side to counterbalance the weight ; these two 
dug sharp spears into the softer part of the animal's 
neck ; another hit him over the nose with an axe. This 
was to make it impossible for him to close the nostril, 
so that he could not keep under water. His attack had 
been rather too sudden, for he succeeded in pressing the 
gunwale under, and pitching the whole party into the 
water. 

What with the shouts of the men, and the splashing of 
the enraged hippo (which could not dive on account of 
the cut nostril), sending blood flying all over the water, 
it was an aquatic pandemonium in which no one need 
desire to be mixed up. The brute made a plunge at 
the nearest man, but he simply dived and came up 
laughing. " Dive, master, if he comes for you. They 
can't bite under water, and he cannot dive ; the water 
would drown him — his nose is dead." 

Such was the advice tendered to Swann, but he sin- 
cerely hoped he would not need to put it into practice. 
The herd answered the grunts of the wounded one, 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 145 

which made off to join them, going like a motor-boat 
along the surface, and blowing jets of blood and water 
as he swam. It was the work of a second for the men 
to turn over the canoe, and a few vigorous see-saw pulls 
sent the water flying over the ends ; baling completed 
the work, and all were snug on board again. The 
spears, having been fastened to strings, were hauled up. 
Swann asked if this often happened. " Yes," they 
answered ; " but usually we manage to keep the boat 
from filling with water ; to-day we are not quick 
enough." Swann never gave them a chance to 
retrieve their character with him as passenger. 

Swann succeeded in securing the treaties from the 
native chiefs, and on his return journey with his fol- 
lowers was spending the night in a native village when 
he was awakened by a horrible shouting and cries of 
" Leopards ! " These shrieks were mingled with the 
ferocious snarls of two leopards as they attacked the 
men lying around their fires. Snatching up a revolver 
he rushed from his hut and saw on the ground, locked in 
a close struggle, men and leopards. The brutes were 
rolled over by the powerful men, sometimes one, then 
the other, being uppermost. Blood was flowing freely 
from the men's legs, arms, and backs where the sharp 
claws had dug deep into their flesh, but up to that 
moment they had succeeded in keeping the animals from 
their throats, which the leopard invariably seizes if he 
can. Both animals were smeared with the blood of 
theij* victims, who were rapidly tiring, having been 
caught when half asleep, with no weapons of defence. 
It was impossible to fire at so confused a mass of strug- 
gling men and beasts without danger of hitting the men, 
so he discharged several shots in the air to scare away 
the creatures. It had a partial success, as they both 
turned to look in the direction of the noise. This gave 
the men breathing time, but the losis of blood had left 



146 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

them but little strength to continue the unequal battle, 1 
and certainly no chance of victory. 

The report of firearms aroused the natives in the ; 
neighbourhood, who rushed out of their huts, and as 

soon as they saw what was taking place, without a | 

moment's hesitation charged down on the leopards, ■ 

plunging their broad-bladed spears into both animals, | 

almost cutting them to pieces. If the leopards had ! 
seized the men's throats nothing could have saved 

their lives, for with a few rapid strokes of their claws '■ 

across the neck they will sever the large arteries and i 
drink the blood. 

In this case it made little difference to two poor I 

fellows, who died the next day from exhaustion. Such ; 

attacks from leopards are not common, as they prefer , 

to catch fowls and dogs and roam nightly through \ 

most villages, occasionally killing a goat which may / 

have been tied up unprotected. But generally speaking ! 

the leopard is considered more as a nuisance than a I 

dangerous enemy. Swann was afraid the natives might i 

raise all sorts of unpleasant questions about witchcraft, | 

in which light the attack was certain to be considered, j 

the leopard being the favourite animal chosen as a | 

temporary residence by their ancestors and enemies, j 

and certain live persons being believed able to transform • 

themselves at will into his shape for the purposes of j 

revenge. This being the case, Swann considered it & 

wise to continue his journey to Ujiji with the valuable | 

treaties and concessions he had been at so much trouble 1 

to obtain for his government. I 

But a violent gale caught them, wind, rain, and water- 
spouts threatening to put an end to their journey. He ^ 
blazed away with his rifle hoping the concussion would 
break the columns of water, but the report was barely ; 
audible. At length a violent gust turned the boat over i 
as though it had been made of paper, and down she 



I 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 147 

went, carrying with her the precious title deeds, but 
fortunately quite close to shore. Next morning, after 
a night of great discomfort and " doleful dumps," the 
rising sun revealed a lake like glass, and the two masts 
of the boat standing out from its unrippled surface. 
A bright fire and a hearty breakfast soon raised the 
spirits of master and men. The crew dived and dragged 
on shore everything out of the boat, including 
the precious treaties, which, thanks to the care with 
which they were packed, were very little damaged. 
While Swann nursed a bad attack of ague by the 
fire, the men set to work to recover the boat. Crowds of 
natives had assembled and looked on the whole affair 
as a huge joke. The anchor and chain were soon 
stretched out towards the shore, and a pole inserted 
under the keel after the sand had been scraped away. 
To the chain were attached strong creepers, as thick as 
a man's wrist. These were passed to the crowd of eager 
helpers, standing in shallow water, who ranged up in 
line — a yelling, jolly crowd of darkies. A pull, enough 
to snap a manila cable, followed, and the vegetable 
rope parted. The whole crowd fell down splashing into 
the lake, a confused heap of astonished but grinning 
humanity, determined to rescue the vessel for the white 
stranger. After repeated failures they were taught how 
to apply their strength, and inch by inch the boat was 
dragged to the shore. A present of a few inches of 
calico quite satisfied them, and during a race for a small 
bag of salt, Swann took his unostentatious departure, 
deeply grateful to them for their kindly help, and thank- 
ful to have come out of a critical situation so luckily. 
The sting, however, like that of the scorpion, lies in the 
end of this tale, for to Swann's intense disappointment 
he learnt that the " sphere of influence " which he had 
risked his life to secure had been handed over to the 
Germans, and the precious treaties were worthless. 



148 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

During this time there was considerable friction 
between the Arabs under the notorious slave-raiders 
Tip-pu-Tib and Rumaliza, and the Europeans, but 
whatever their faults may have been these two leaders 
always treated Swann with courtesy and consideration, 
and afforded him help whenever they could, but constant 
petty annoyances were the consequence of this friction, 
and even the most friendly tribes could not guarantee 
absolute safety, as they were not powerful enough. The 
country was in a state of unrest and the minds of the 
natives were perturbed and tense. In one village in 
which Swann was staying he was awakened in the middle 
of the night by a terrible uproar. On going out he found 
the natives rushing about half-crazy with fear, yelling, 
" War ! War ! " and blazing away in all directions with 
their guns. On going to the stockade he discovered 
four men outside lying prostrate, half-dead with fear 
He calmed the excitement and ordered the men to rise. 
They turned out to be four of his own followers with 
mails from the coast. On nearing the village one of 
them tripped and his gun went off. Immediately a 
fusilade of shot was opened on them, and had they not 
thrown themselves to the ground they would have been 
blown to pieces. This serves to show the nervous mental 
condition of the natives at that time. Raiding and 
sniping were of such constant occurrence that the natives 
were afraid to leave their villages, and starvation did not 
seem far distant. Kakungu, a chief on the eastern side 
of the lake, was the chief offender. His retort to Swann's 
protest was equivalent to " shut up ! " and he invited 
the white man to come and take back his flag (the 
British flag) if he wanted it, and promised that in the 
event of his coming he would be speared. In spite of the 
pacific nature of Swann's occupation, he saw that peace 
might be purchased too dearly, and determined that 
these high-handed acts of the arrogant bully should 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 149 

cease, and a climax was reached when a poor old woman 
was brought into the village, terribly mutilated. So, 
joining forces with the Lakes Company, they marched 
into the den of brutes. 

It was hoped to deal a smashing blow, to end the 
business by one sudden, sweeping stroke, so as to 
prevent a long guerilla-like struggle. Two Europeans 
went with the land force, two with the boats. Swann 
was to demonstrate from the lake in order to draw the 
enemy out from the stockades, thus permitting the 
land force to rush in and occupy the villages, situated 
about a quarter of a mile up a river which flowed 
through them. They were strongly fortified by a deep 
trench ; earth was plastered up the sloping sides nearly 
to the top of the poles, on which thick thorns had been 
fixed. To get at the stockade, the ditch had to be crossed 
and the smooth sides of the earth embankment scaled. 
When that was done it was impossible to get in without 
climbing over the thorns. They bound oakum soaked in 
turpentine around arrow-heads, to set fire to the grass 
huts in case of failure to take the place by storm. 

Having arrived at the arranged time, they found that 
the natives had discovered the approach of the lake 
division. They danced along the sand with defiant 
shouts. The attackers moved slowly along the bay, 
firing an occasional shot over their heads ; this made 
them more bold and drew them away from the forts, 
which was the object wished for. The glittering spears 
of the land force could be seen coming over the hills at 
the back of the villages ; but, instead of at once rushing 
into the stockade, then undefended, they came down to 
the shore to drink. Of course this gave the enemy time 
to get back home, and the ruse was spoiled. 

Grumbling was no use, so Swann ordered his men to 
fire a volley and then rush the trench. This was done, 
but the smooth glacis afforded no foothold. Several 



150 THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 

attempts were made but all failed. In one of them 
Swann had thrust the|barrel of his rifle between the 
poles of the stockade when one of the defenders placed 
his gun on top of it and fired. Swann had a narrow 
escape as the flash scorched his right ear. He then 
called for the prepared arrows, and setting light to one 
of them fired it into the thatch of a hut near to him. 
This was soon in a blaze, and another party of the 
attackers having effected an entrance, stockade No. 1 
was soon captured and the enemy in retreat across the 
river, A heavy fire was opened on the gateway of 
stockade No. 2 to prevent it being barricaded, and 
plunging through the river the attackers were soon in 
possession of Kakungu's own village, and the enemy 
streaming away in full flight. The insulted flag was 
still floating, but was hauled down by Swann. Kakun- 
gu's promise, however, was not fulfilled ! And so the 
wasps were smoked out of their nest ; Kakungu was 
captured and died in exile, and his followers were 
scattered. The effects of this smashing blow were soon 
apparent, for other robber chiefs found the neighbour- 
hood unsuitable, and fled to more congenial climes ; 
trade was secured and order restored. 

It was soon after this that Swann learnt of the 
terrible end of the cunning old medicine-man who 
nearly closed his adventures by means of the elephant 
trap. This man had incurred the hatred of the Arabs, 
who accused him of exercising his witchcraft against 
them. They surrounded his rocky retreat and forced 
him to capitulate through hunger. The poor wretch 
was tied to some very light pith-wood trees, used by 
fishermen as buoys for their traps ; the raft was then 
placed on the river, with fresh-cut goat's meat to attract 
the crocodiles. His tormentors sat on the bank, watch- 
ing the reptiles fight for his body. This being firmly 
lashed, the creatures could only snap at him ; the 



THE HAUNTS OF SLAVERY 151 

buoyant wood prevented them from carrying him under 
water. It is said they tore him to pieces, and one can 
imagine what torture he must have suffered as he lay 
helplessly looking at the green-eyed monsters swimming 
around the raft, and trying to get a favourable oppor- 
tunity of biting off a limb. When he was nearly torn to 
pieces the Arabs amused themselves, as they sat, by 
firing at the crocodiles. 

After a brief holiday in the Old Country, Swann 
severed his connection with the Missionary Society 
and accepted an offer from the Government to co- 
operate with Sir Harry Johnston in maintaining order 
and punishing wrongdoers in a land in which he had 
already lived for so many years. 

[The information contained in these chapters has 
been derived from Mr. A. J. Swann's book. Fighting 
the Slave Hunters in Central Africa, by kind permission 
of the author.] 



"Wf ' 7 Wi 



'^^ 




A Suspended Granary 

To avoid the depredations of rats and of other vermin, the Bapinji have devised a suspended 
granary for those articles that are of special attraction to rodents, as for example ground-nuts. 
Ihese granaries consist of big basket-iike structures which are suspended on poles in the village. 



CHAPTER XII 

A WANDERER IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 

It is unnecessary to enter into the primary reasons of 
Mr. L. Torday's presence in Africa ; it is sufficient to 
say that he is a traveller and explorer by nature, and a 
big game hunter by inclination. He has lived for a 
considerable number of years in unbroken and intimate 
relations with the natives of the interior, and, like all 
true travellers in Africa, has discovered that beneath 
the dusky exterior of the negro there are sterling 
qualities which the average white resident never 
discovers. 

Having landed at Boma, the capital of the Independ- 
ent Congo Free State, he found it such a pestiferous 
swamp, lacking the blessing of civilization, and having 
lost the glory of the wilderness, that his stay here was 
very brief and he went on to Kinshasa. Here European 
food was most difficult to obtain, and the white residents 
were driven to shooting hippopotami, which has a 
repulsive fishy taste. Prices for other eatables were 
exorbitant, and a state of semi-starvation existed. 
Torday kept a few ducks, and great was his shock one 
day when he was informed by his native clerk that a 
python had got into his fowl-house and was feasting on 
his fowls. He rushed to the building, but as it had no 
windows it was perfectly dark inside. A candle was 
brought and the snake was discovered coiled up and fast 
asleep. But roused by the noise it lifted its head and 
hissed. This was too much for the clerk ; he dropped 
the candle, rushed out of the door, and banged it to, and 

163 



154 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 

locked it on the outside, leaving Torday in total darkness 
closeted with a fifteen foot python. The situation is 
better imagined then described ; his imagination had 
time to play its usual pranks before the door was burst 
open — and there lay the snake sound asleep; it had 
not moved from its place. After the reptile had been 
despatched Torday went to interview the clerk, and the 
result to Torday was a fine of two pounds with thirty- 
three shillings costs. But it was worth the money. 

Life at Kinshasa was undermining his health, so 
having a position near Lake Moeru offered him he gladly 
accepted it. But a tremendous detour had to be made, 
for the country, at any rate the Kasai district, was in a 
terribly disturbed state, thanks to revolted Batetela 
soldiers and some native chiefs, that it was quite im- 
possible for any European to pass through. To get to 
the lakes the only safe way was up the Congo and through 
the Manyema. On nearing Bumba, a district notorious 
for its hostility to the whites, where the river is twenty- 
five miles wide, and studded with islands, the powder- 
magazine in which were stored tons of explosives, 
caught fire, but a Bangala, a stoker, courageously 
descended into the hold, and the rest forming a chain 
passed bucket after bucket of water to him, and finally 
the fire was extinguished. The brave fellow crawled on 
deck quite exhausted, and was subsequently rewarded 
with sixteen yards of cotton cloth ! But it must be 
emphasized that this was not the outcome of meanness, 
but simply because there was nothing else to give him, 
as personal luggage had been cut down almost to vanish- 
ing point, except those articles which were absolutely 
necessary for a prolonged stay in the backwoods. 

The natives here were known as Ngombe, which 
really means bush-men, and disfigure themselves with 
cicatrices ; moreover all the tribes in this neighbourhood 
are cannibals. Further up-river near Basoko, the people 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 155 

use the lip-plug or labret. A hole is pierced in the upper 
lip and gradually enlarged until it will hold a wooden 
disk over two inches in diameter. 

Stanleyville is a curious mixture of an Arab-European 
negro town. In spite of the cruelties exercised by the 
Arabs in their slave raids they certainly conferred some 
benefits ; they introduced rice, potatoes, beans, etc., 
education, and — cleanliness. At Leopoldville, where 
further stores are usually bought, very few could be 
procured, as there was a serious shortage. Torday was 
able, however, to secure a generous supply of pickles. 
Evidently the residents did not care for pickles. 

The journey was resumed in a large dug-out, paddlers 
being supplied from village to village, so that no man 
was taken far from his native place. But at one village 
the men refused to do the work, so Torday invited 
between thirty and forty women to step into his canoe 
under the pretext of bartering articles. Their keenness 
to make a bargain, innate in the native mind, brought 
them forward at once. Then the painter was slipped, 
and when the men saw the dug-out drifting down- 
stream with its dusky cargo they started in pursuit, but 
Torday told them that for every man who stepped into 
his canoe a lady might be taken out of pawn, and so he 
secured his full complement of paddlers. Torday does 
not excuse his action, which may be open to question, 
but he pleads the exigencies of the case. 

These Wagenya paddlers are a fine set of men, and 
Torday enjoyed the thrilling experience of shooting 
the rapids in one of their small canoes. In the neighbour- 
hood of Kasongo the natives believe that if they are 
bitten by a small insect called kimputu, they will surely 
die, and in many cases the fever, known as tick fever, 
has proved fatal. Among the Manyema there were 
many evidences of the tortures inflicted by the Arabs ; 
feet burnt off and lips cut away were common forms of 



156 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 

cruelty. The Tamba Tamba (Arabised chief) adopted 
similar methods as punishments for evil doers. 

From Kasongo the journey to Tanganyika had been 
continued by land, but a consuming fever was burning 
Torday up, and had it not been for his faithful servant, 
Makoba, who mercilessly drove him on, he would have 
crept into the bush and died. At last Tanganyika was 
sighted, and Torday was given a passage on board the 
Cecil Rhodes to Pala, the Mission of the White Fathers, 
where, after a fight with death, he was nursed back to 
health. This illness was attributed by the natives to 
the kimputu, from which, they said, there was no escape. 
After several relapses and recoveries, Torday finally 
regained his health. 

As his position in the Katanga was merely a formal 
one, and more or less of a sinecure, he was free to indulge 
his hobbies, so he took to collecting birds, and to big 
game shooting. His first expedition was in search of 
the lost Cape Akalonga, charted by Livingstone in his 
map of Lake Tanganyika, and chosen as a point in 
the delimitation of territory between British Central 
Africa and the Congo State. But when the officials 
went to find it, they reported that there was no such 
Cape at all. Torday felt certain that Livingstone was 
correct, and determined to prove it. On his way he lost 
his faithful Makoba. The boy had obtained permission 
to bathe, but after some time a cry for help reached 
Torday's ears. He snatched up his rifle and called to 
the men to follow him and made for the river. At first 
he could see nothing, but soon observed traces of blood 
and the footprints of a leopard. Marks on the sand 
showed that Makoba had been knocked over and 
dragged into the water. Holding his rifle above his 
head, Torday swam over, and the spoor was picked up 
again. However, darkness overtook them and they had 
to return. The search was continued next day, and after 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 157 

some time what remained of poor Makoba was found ; 
the head had been torn off and half the shoulder 
devoured by the leopard. Torday ambushed, but the 
whole day passed without a sign of the foe. At last, 
when hope was given up, the beast arrived, and a bullet 
from an express rifle avenged Makoba. 

Lions are a great pest in the Katanga, and leopards 
take a considerable toll of the weaker part of the popula- 
tion, attacking women and children. An Englishman 
engaged in a mining company was out shooting one day 
when he came face to face with one of these pests. 
There was only one course open to him, so he fired at it. 
The leopard though badly wounded sprang at him and 
inflicted terrible injuries on his left arm. The man 
tried to draw his hunting knife, but any movement only 
excited the brute to greater fury. At length the effects 
of the bullet began to tell, and the man was able to 
draw his knife and finish the animal off. But he was 
himself so weak that he was unable to roll the carcase 
from off him. He was discovered some time later, 
with the leopard still lying across him, whilst he was 
painfully trying to roll a cigarette with his right hand. 
But he died two hours later from the effects of his 
wounds. 

At first Torday was unsuccessful in his search for the 
lost Cape, but at length he discovered an old man who 
had known Livingstone well. He led Torday to a 
promontory at the foot of a hill, now several hundred 
yards from the waters of the Lake. That was the lost 
Cape Akalonga, and the great explorer's map was 
correct after all. 

At Kisabi game was abundant and lions were numer- 
ous, and Torday describes their roar, in proper surround- 
ings, as grand music. At Pweto, a hyena tried to carry 
off a donkey's foal ; but it had come to the wrong 
address, for it was found in the morning with its brainy 



158 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 

kicked out. When Torday visited this place it enjoyed 
pleasant immunity from tsetse fly and lions, but a year 
or two later lions were numerous, the fly had destroyed 
all the cattle, and sleeping-sickness had made its 
appearance. The roaming habits of lions has been 
noticed in other localities ; at Kanda Kanda, in 1907, 
lions were practically unknown, but in 1908 they became 
an absolute danger. 

Lions become very daring when they turn man- 
eaters. At one village, Torday was surprised at the 
cordiality of his welcome. It turned out that a herd 
of eight man-eaters terrorised the place, and the in- 
habitants looked to him for relief. They would leap 
over the fires, and jumping on the thatched roof of a 
hut would break in by their weight and carry off the 
occupant. That same night, Torday was awakened by 
the whining of his dog, so he got up, took his rifle, and 
carefully opened the door of the hut, and saw just 
beyond the fire a greyish mass, and the glittering eyes 
of a beast of prey. He carefully returned, and fastened 
a piece of white paper to the foresight of his barrel in 
order to ensure his aim ; then kneeling and resting his 
rifle on the doorstep which was about a foot high, he 
took careful aim and fired. The shot roused the whole 
camp, and general confusion followed. After waiting 
for some time he advanced nearer and there lay a fine 
lion, stone dead. This appeared to have scared off the 
other lions, for no more were seen or heard. 

Following the Congo, Torday reached a veritable 
hunter's paradise. But one day, walking along a native 
track followed by one of his men, he heard a scream, 
and turned round in time to see the man tossed into the 
air by a bull buffalo. Before he could shoulder his rifle 
the man was down and the buffalo trampling on him 
furiously. Torday fired and brought the animal to 
his knees, and a second shot finished him. He was a 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 159 

solitary bull, driven from the herd, and therefore 
trebly vicious. 

After some desultory wandering about Lakes Ban- 
gwelo and Kisale, with a train of porters lent to him by 
Mokandu Bantu, the son of M'Siri, the famous former 
king of the Kalanga, Torday retraced his steps to the 
Portuguese frontier, but found himself in an awkward 
predicament. The Batetela rebels, mentioned already, 
were retreating to the same frontier, pursued by a 
punitive expedition, and Torday was hemmed in be- 
tween the frontier and the rebels, who were not likely 
to discriminate between combatants and non-con- 
batants, and with every chance of falling in with them. 
His porters, however, were staunch, and proceeding with 
great caution they passed the danger zone, and reached 
home safely. 

After a short visit to England, Torday found the 
" call " too strong for him, and shortly afterwards found 
himself at Kinchasa, a little beyond Leopold ville on the 
Congo, a place notorious for the abundance of mos- 
quitoes and snakes. A stern- wheeled vessel makes 
a weekly journey between Kinchasa and Dima, the 
head-quarters of the Kasai Company. On board, 
Torday and a fellow passenger entrusted their precious 
European provisions, which were to last for a very long 
time, to a native " chef " who had come to them with 
very flowery credentials, and his first attempt was a 
nauseating mess, boiled for six hours, of which the 
ingredients were everything he could lay hands on, 
including currants, and this he called " Irish stew ! " 
Bread and cheese formed the one and only item of that 
dinner. Torday met several old acquaintances, and 
soon was established as such a favourite that when a 
fly fell into his soup three dusky hands at once dived 
in to fish it out ! 

At Chimbana a call was made, and hemp was brought 



160 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 

to the vessel for smoking purposes, a most pernicious 
habit. Torday bought all that was offered for sale 
and promptly burnt it, greatly to the disgust of the 
smokers. On the afternoon of the fourth day on the 
Kwilu, which falls into the Congo some distance west 
of Dima, Kongo was reached, a settlement with one 
permanent resident of white blood, and where Torday 
disembarked. Here, after some trouble, he secured a 
good servant and cook, named Bokale. At Kongo both 
vegetable and animal food were very plentiful, and yet 
cannibalism was very rife. How can this be explained ? 
Slaves are purchased and eaten, and a chief sent to 
Torday what he euphemistically called an " antelope 
leg," but which Torday recognised as being human. 
Needless to say it was returned with a reprimand for 
so " improper " a present 

While here, Torday was called on to arbitrate between 
two villages on the question of the accidental slaying 
of an inhabitant of one of them. The chiefs were grateful 
for his assistance, but at the same time his decision that 
no compensation need be paid did not give universal 
satisfaction. Torday puts this down to the fact that 
the minds of the black and white men do not consider 
such matters from the same point of view. 

A few days afterwards Torday set out for Kolokoto, 
in the Bambala country. Kolokoto is a small village 
of about one hundred inhabitants in all. The chief, 
Kikungulu, was a man of repulsive appearance, and 
universally detested, but believed to possess magic 
powers. Torday was in need of a servant, and had 
marked one intelligent boy as well suited for his 
purpose. But the boy was the chief's bondsman 
and could do nothing without the chief's consent. 
So negotiations were opened, and after beating down 
several preposterous demands for compensation, Torday 
secured the boy as his servant. He proved truthful 




A Typical Woman from the Triur of Zappo Zap 

The more the traveller goes eastward, the more refined the features of the natives become, in some 
specimens one finds very few of the characteristics usually attributed to negroes. The black colour 
so common on the West Coast, is replaced by a soft chocolate-brown, which in certain individual' 
merges into dark yellow. Kasai people speak of the inhabitants of the Lower Congo as "black 
negroes." 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 161 

and honest, and of great value in securing informa- 
tion of ethnological interest otherwise unattainable. 
Early one morning, Torday heard the firing of guns 
in the village, and enquired the reason. Meysey, 
the boy, replied that there was to be a funeral, and 
volunteered the information that a man was to be 
buried alive for witchcraft, having been proved guilty 
by the poison ordeal. Torday made his way to the place 
and saw a good-looking grey-beard seated near a freshly- 
dug grave, eating and drinking, and near him stood 
Kikungulu. Torday asked the chief if what he had 
heard was true, and he replied that it certainly was. 
After remonstrating for some time, Torday seized the 
chief by the throat and threatened to strangle him unless 
he gave the man up. The crowd grew restive and things 
began to look serious when Meysey ran up with his 
master's rifle. Meantime the chief was growing grey 
in the face, and finally yielded, and Torday marched 
the rescued man off to his own hut followed by the 
hooting of the crowd. The guardianship of his guest was 
henceforth rather a trial to his host ; Torday's own men 
objected to the stranger's presence, who had to be fed 
from private stores to guard against poisoned food ; 
arrows whistled in close proximity to Torday's own 
person, and, moreover, the man seemed absolutely 
careless and indifferent to his own safety. This led to 
his undoing, for he went out one day, never to return, 
for his body was found in the forest clubbed to death. 

After this, relations were for some time strained, but 
at last the chief made what looked like conciliatory 
advances. He begged Torday to take a young son of 
his into his service as a help in the cooking department. 
Torday willingly consented. But some days later he 
detected a bitter taste in his coffee, and summoned his 
cook, who denied all knowledge of the matter, and 
offered to drink the coffee. This he did and soon 



162 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 

after was howling, doubled up with violent pains in his 
stomach. An emetic relieved him, and then Torday him- 
self had a similar attack. The same day the youthful 
assistant disappeared, and it was subsequently dis- 
covered that it was a deliberate attempt on the part of 
the chief to murder Torday. 

After a stay of two months, Torday determined to 
make a move into the southern country. But this was 
by no means plain sailing, for the quarrel with the vil- 
lagers did not make them any the more ready to offer 
their services, but he succeeded in starting with twenty 
men, taking only about four hundred pounds weight 
of necessary materials. 

From Kolokoto the country rises steadily for about 
an hour's march till the great plateau is reached which 
forms so great an obstacle to communication even for 
the natives themselves. It extends some seven hours' 
march north-east to south-west, a barren, flat expanse 
of sand with patches of thin grass less than two feet 
high. In the whole area of four hundred square miles 
there is but one single tree which is visible from every 
part of the plateau ; beneath it are the remains of 
hundreds of camp fires, for it affords the only shade 
from the burning rays of the sun. There are no birds 
to be seen there ; no animals, not even rats, for they 
cannot find any means of subsistence ; the only living 
inhabitants of this desert are aggressive brown flies, 
which settle on white man, black man, goat or dog, 
indiscriminately, to suck their blood. The men suffered 
from want of water, as the man to whom the large 
water- jar had been entrusted had carefully emptied it, 
offering as an excuse that it was easier to carry when 
empty than when full ! 

At Punza, the first village just below the edge of the 
plateau, food was very scarce, and the accommodation 
abominable. At Mosonge the carriers, according to 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 163 

agreement, were dismissed, and Torday bought a hut 
for himself from the chief, Kwilu. This man, though 
a chief, was a clever blacksmith, and proved an excellent 
fellow. The scarcity of food and game compelled 
Torday to become vegetarian, living principally on 
cassava bread. The quantity of water he consumed 
was not far short of a gallon a day, and naturally drinks 
between meals were necessary to get through this 
allowance. Now this is not so simple a matter as it 
seems. It is a native custom when anyone drinks for 
all present to sit down on the ground and to lower 
modestly their eyes. Sometimes when he visited the 
interior all the people of the surrounding villages came 
to see him, and if he raised his glass to his mouth they 
never failed to drop to the ground with one accord ; if 
by chance anyone failed to carry out this duty of polite- 
ness, his neighbours did not fail to recall him to his 
senses with a vigorous nudge. 

As it was quite impossible to obtain carriers, Torday 
determined to leave the bulk of his goods at Mosonge in 
charge of one of his followers, and push on south with 
two attendants, his faithful Meysey and Bokale. The 
first day's march took them to Kisai, a village of the 
Basamba, one of the earliest Bantu populations of the 
country. Their settlements extend over an enormous 
area in proportion to the population ; for each village is 
formed of so many separate hamlets of two or three 
huts, with intervening tracts of bush, twenty yards 
or more in breadth, traversed by narrow paths. This 
forms an excellent defence against the aggressive 
Bamballa and Bayaka neighbours, with whom the 
Basamba are never on better than cool terms, and there 
were constant forays and alarms. 

The old chief was on especially friendly terms with 
Torday, so much so that he was very desirous to make 
him his daughter's affianced lover. Torday offered 



164 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 

no objection as it implied no obligations of any kind 
beyond an occasional present to the father and daughter ; 
moreover, the young lady was only four years of age. 

Leaving Kisai, Torday reached the Yee river, 
where he saw for the first time the Bayaka. At the 
village of Yee, on the Yee river, Torday was well 
received by the kiamfu or chief. In former days 
the kiamfu, when he rose from a sitting position, did 
so with the aid of two slaves, one on either side, into 
whose backs he dug a knife. This he did out of mere 
ostentation, in much the same manner as one of the 
nouveau riche might light his cigar with a bank-note. 
On the march from Yee to Zange two rivers were 
crossed, the waters of which literally teemed with fish. 
By good luck, Torday happened to have with him 
some fish-hooks. A large one was selected, weighted 
and cast, but unfortunately it caught in the ear of a 
bystander ; the second cast landed in a tree ; and at 
the third cast the hook caught in the trunk of a floating 
tree, so Torday handed the line over to one of his men 
in disgust. The man baited it and threw, but with no 
result. Time after time this was done but to no effect. 
So tired of this waste of energy, Torday determined to 
adopt a policy of masterly inactivity. He threw the 
hook properly baited into the water, then after tying 
the line to his leg threw himself at full length on the 
bank to await events. He had not long to wait for a 
tremendous tug warned him that he had hooked some- 
thing large. He tried to undo the line but it had become 
entangled, and to his dismay he discovered that he was 
assuming the role of a fish and was being gradually 
drawn towards the water. He clawed at the earth, but 
there was nothing firm to grasp. His feet and part of 
his legs were submerged and he yelled for help. His 
man ran up, but by the time he had gone through all 
his pockets in search of a knife to cut the line, Torday 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 165 

was up to his shoulders in the water. When the line 
was cut he got out of the water and sat down silently, 
quite stupefied. Suddenly the man gave a yell of triumph 
and dashed into the water towards a floating tree on 
which he climbed and sat waiting events. Soon the 
tree stranded on a sandbank, and it was seen that the 
line had become entangled in the boughs, and the 
combined weight of tree and fish had dragged Torday 
into the water. It took them two hours to land the 
fish, which was a veritable freshwater leviathan. Torday 
could not understand how the line had stood the strain. 
Torday next visited the Luye river where are some 
beautiful falls, then on to Mokunji, notable for its good- 
looking girls, and its chief Baka, famous for his legal 
knowledge, then to Putumbumba renowned for its 
basket-work, and back to Mosonge, whence he returned 
to his original base at Kongo. 



CHAPTER XIII 

A WANDERER IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 

Torday's next expedition was to Luano, some distance 
north of Kongo. His dwelling here was a palace when 
compared with many filthy huts he had previously used. 
The situation was a pleasant one, overlooking the river, 
and the three rooms spacious. His first care was to issue 
a notice that anyone who was ill could receive medical 
treatment from him. Applicants resolved themselves 
into three classes — those who were willing to pay a small 
fee, those who would not pay any, and those who wished 
to be paid for being treated. No scale of fees was 
produced. The pharmacopoeia was not large ; in fact, 
Epsom salts was the chief medicine, as most of the 
patients were suffering from indigestion. Torday soon 
gained the confidence of the natives, many of whom 
would come to him not for medical advice but for 
conversation. The chief topic was the war then raging 
between the Bayanzi on the one side, and the Bambala 
and Wangongo on the other. This seemed to be a 
serious matter for the country, and Torday resolved to 
intervene at the earliest possible opportunity. He was 
confirmed in this resolution by a conversation with 
Boma, chief of Luzubi, who was a leader of one of the 
contending parties, but was quite willing to submit to 
arbitration. 

First of all a visit was paid to Luzubi and the consent 
of all the chiefs obtained ; then Torday journeyed 
south-east to the scene of the battles* This entailed 
wary walking, for the land being in a state of war all 
preparations had been made to receive an enemy. The 

166 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 167 

grass was six feet high, and, on either side of the path, 
only a foot broad, were sharp stakes pointing in the 
direction of the advancing party, which would infallibly 
impale the incautious traveller who wandered from the 
straight road. In the centre of the path were carefully 
masked man-traps, holes three feet deep by a foot 
broad and two feet long, too small to permit the victim 
to fall completely into them, but containing five pointed 
stakes which seldom failed to pierce his feet. Torday's 
feet being protected by boots, he led the way, trying 
the ground at each step to see if it were solid. Near the 
village of Gangan was a specially elaborate device ; 
in the centre of the path was an ordinary man-trap, 
the covering of grass and sand removed as if by accident ; 
but the unwary traveller who took warning at this and 
stepped aside was plunged into one or other of two 
much larger pitfalls in the bush on either side. Farther 
on, a little hillock with three arrows stuck in it and 
pointing in the direction of the village, formed a plain 
indication to the natives and those who understood their 
language that entrance was forbidden. 

All the grass and bush for several hundred yards 
round the village had been removed, and when Torday's 
party appeared some hundreds of warriors rushed out of 
the village with arrows fixed to their bows. Torday's 
carriers bolted with the exception of Meysey and Bokale, 
but Torday, assuming a nonchalant air, and lighting a 
cigarette, sat down on a campstool and pretended not 
to take any notice of the warriors. They were somewhat 
taken aback, but one of them approached and asked 
him who he was, what he wanted, and did he know that 
they were at war. To this Torday replied that his name 
was Deke (a name given to him by the Swahili-speaking 
people), that he had business with the chief, and as to 
the war, it was no concern of his. He said he had no 
soldiers with him, and that even his own rifle was on the 



168 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 

ground some distance away. The man went to speak 
to the chief, and soon returned with many apologies 
for their suspicions. 

Torday was led into the village accompanied only by 
his two boys, and there met the important chief, Chitutu, 
who, after presents had been exchanged, expressed his 
willingness to treat with Boma, but showed his anger 
against the Wangongo. However, he consented to 
summon a milonga or council, and soon messengers 
were speeding in all directions to summon the people. 
Meantime Torday took out an old copy of the Graphic, 
and held it so that the natives might see the pictures, 
of which that of a well-known advertisement excited 
their wonder most. Thus their interest and curiosity 
were aroused, and their suspicions lulled. 

At length the palaver began and lasted two whole 
days, owing to the vigorous opposition of one of the 
chiefs ; but he was at length silenced and the council 
came to a satisfactory conclusion. But now the question 
of carriers arose, for Torday's men had bolted. Two 
rivers had to be crossed, the intervening space having 
been the battle-field of the belligerents. The Bayanzi 
offered to come as far as the first river and leave the 
rest to the Bambala. They on their part refused to 
cross the second river ; so Torday stood a fair chance of 
being stranded between the two, until Boma, with magni- 
ficent courage, crossed the no-man's-land and shook 
hands with the Bayanzi chiefs. And so the peace was 
ratified. 

After a stay of six months at Luano, Torday moved on 
to Kikwit on the same river, the Kwilu, but considerably 
further south. Kikwit is a European settlement, called 
by the natives Matari, after the stone which there forms 
the banks of the river. 

Torday was received with open arms at Kikwit, for 
his reputation had preceded him from Luano. Shortly 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 169 

after his arrival disturbances were reported at Baba, on 
the River Kwengo, about three days' journey to the 
south-west, and so he set out to investigate the cause, 
which was the usual one. The overbearing behaviour 
of the European resident had incensed the natives 
and his life was in danger. He was told a few unpalat- 
able truths and packed off to find another sphere of 
usefulness, to the great delight of the natives. On the 
first day of their return journey they crossed the 
Yambesi by a vine bridge. This is made by loosening 
from the trees the wild vines, which twine themselves 
round their branches ; when the ends are brought 
sufficiently low, poles, twelve feet or so in length and 
six inches thick, are made fast to them, and, if necessary, 
other vines brought from the forest to make the vine 
cables equal to any strain likely to be put upon them. 
To the end of the first pole is lashed a second, which is 
likewise attached to the branches of the over-hanging 
trees on both sides. More and more poles are brought, 
to the number, perhaps, of a dozen in all, till the river is 
bridged, each pole being made fast as before. The 
bridge is not horizontal from end to end, but rises some 
twelve feet in the middle, the centre poles being attached 
to the highest branches on each side. The total breadth 
of the bridge is simply the width of the pole, but there 
is no danger of slipping off, as the sides are guarded by a 
network of vines three feet high, which forms an effective 
barrier. Such bridges are for African circumstances an 
absolute luxury, and the traveller may think himself 
fortunate who finds such a one at his disposal. 

Near Kisamba, Torday had a nasty accident, for he 
fell into an antelope pit, but suffered nothing worse than 
a shaking and some bruises. If this pit had had, as is 
usual, a sharp stake fixed in the bottom, the conse- 
quences might have been serious, if not fatal. On 
another occasion in Katanga he was travelling with 



170 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 

another European to whom he had lent some of his 
carriers, as his purse was too hght to engage sufficient 
for himself. Torday was out shooting for the pot when 
he fell into a pit. Being alone he fired off his rifle a 
number of times, but no help came. A considerable 
time passed during which he fired off more cartridges, 
and at length one of his men peered over the edge of 
the pit. Torday asked his white companion if he had 
not heard the shots. " Oh, yes," he coolly replied, " I 
did ; but I thought you were being attacked, and 
went on ! " Torday took back his carriers, and left his 
valiant " friend " to look after himself. 

At Mosongo the chief, a regular Daniel Lambert, and 
full of his own importance, came to meet Torday, and 
bustled every one about in a most irritating fashion. At 
length this so exasperated his wives that they banded 
together and gave him a sound drubbing with fist and 
tongue, then asked him if he wanted any more. To save 
his dignity the chief explained to Torday that his wives 
were very playful ! On reaching the river Djari there 
was, of course, no bridge, and the carriers professed 
they could not swim, so they were despatched with axes 
to find material to make a bridge. Meanwhile Torday 
and his boys swam across and were enjoying a meal 
when the carriers returned. Seeing that their labour 
had been in vain, they reviewed the situation and all 
swam across without accident, each with his burden 
on his head. They were expert swimmers. 

The Luchima, generally a foaming river, was not so 
easily crossed. The only means of transport was a 
crazy raft of three logs of very light wood, poled or 
paddled over. As the air was full of bees and flies, 
Torday determined to cross without delay, but decided 
to swim behind the raft. In mid-stream the man lost 
his pole and immediately the raft shot down-stream at 
express speed. Torday exerted all his strength and 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 171 

succeeded in edging the raft among the branches of an 
over-hanging tree, and emerged thoroughly exhausted 
and covered with scratches and bruises from the 
branches. The Bakwese, who had provided the raft and 
the paddler, saw in this accident a good opportunity for 
making additional and extortionate demands on the 
goods still to be transferred ; so Torday undertook the 
rest of the transport himself, and after six hours' labour 
left the river, leaving on the bank half the original fee 
the Bakwese had demanded. 

Torday 's object in not following the same route back 
by which he had set out was that he wished to visit 
Yongo, chief of the Bakwamosinga, whose reputation 
for bravery was widespread. This reputation was 
enhanced by the disrespect with which he had hitherto 
with impunity treated Europeans. When, therefore, it 
was learnt that Torday intended to pay a visit to this 
African Napoleon, great wonder was expressed at his 
foolhardiness. 

The foaming Biere was crossed by a pole bridge and 
Maginoka reached, a village which had recently been 
attacked by Yongo. The villagers showed their wounds, 
and Torday sympathised and promised to do the best 
he could for them with the great chief. They doubtfully 
shook their heads, and expressed a hope that he might 
return safely. The journey was resumed until a broad 
swamp was reached beyond which lay the Lufuku. 
One of the carriers who knew Yongo was despatched to 
warn the chief that an unarmed European wished to visit 
him, and at the same time to hint that disastrous conse- 
quences would follow any violence to body or goods. 
Yongo replied that he would be delighted to receive his 
visitor, and that the friendly feeling was reciprocated. 

Yongo village, named after its founder, is situated in a 
strong position between the Lufuku itself, bordered by a 
swamp, and the Ponde, whose course lies through the 



172 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 

middle of another swamp. It is a natural stronghold, and 
any attack upon it would be an exceedingly dangerous 
proceeding, for it is impossible to cross the raging Lufuku 
either on rafts or by swimming, and the simple bridge 
over it would not survive a few blows of an axe, while the 
crossing of the Ponde involves half an hour's wading 
thigh-deep in a swamp, a condition which does not 
conduce to celerity of action. It was Yongo's habit to 
cut down the bridge as soon as a caravan had crossed it, 
thus keeping them prisoners until he had selected 
anything in their loads which took his fancy. 

The village itself contains many thousands of warriors, 
and extends over a large area. Bows and arrows are 
not their only weapons ; they possess muzzle and even 
breech-loaders. When the loads had been safely de- 
posited on the right bank of the Lufuku, Torday found 
himself greeted by a howling mob of men who brandished 
their bows and guns in the air ; their intentions were, 
however, good ; they merely wished to show off their 
strength and their guns, of which they are exceedingly 
proud. He was led to a place swept clean for him to 
await the chief's invitation. Yongo was ready and one 
of the elders led the visitor into the royal enclosure 
where his tent was pitched. Torday was conducted 
into a kind of shed behind the houses, and there the 
chief was seated, while behind him were a number of 
upright sticks with a human skull on the top of each. 
He was surrounded by several old men, and against him 
leant Totchi, his favourite son. He was simply dressed 
in a loin-cloth, and one single bracelet of brass encircled 
his right arm. His physique was exceptional ; his hair 
was sprinkled with grey ; and he appeared to suffer 
much from rheumatism. 

Conversation opened with the usual complimentary 
and laudatory speeches of which the theme was Yongo, 
the Great ! A warning then followed that he should 




Head-dress of Aemba Girl 

This head-dress is usually worn by warriors. It is tied by a string to the back part ot the head. 
A piece of ivory is suspended from her neck attached to a string of beads. Her tribal marks may 
be seen on the forehead and side of the face. She looks stern while facing the camera, but in daily 
life she is full of fun. 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 173 

reform his ways on pain of utter extinction. The 
warning seemed to sink in, for he retired to take council, 
and on his return announced that he had decided to make 
peace with his neighbours. Presents then followed, 
but Torday excused himself from giving one, for, he 
said, he did not feel equal to make a gift of any sort to 
one so great as the chief described himself. Yongo saw 
the joke and laughed heartily. A return visit was made, 
and Torday was impressed with his shrewdness and 
ability. 

Chatula, Yongo's brother, was the chief magician, 
and had shown great hostility to Europeans as well as 
to the neighbouring tribes. Torday' s fame as a doctor 
had spread abroad, thanks to his followers, and Chatula 
having some bad sores on his legs, came to be treated. 
This was Torday's opportunity, so he sent round secretly 
inviting the people to his hut. When they arrived they 
found the white stranger doctoring their chief magician. 
He pointed out the absurdity of the position. They 
were quick to see the point, and howled their applause, 
and from that day Chatula' s power began to decline. 
Torday clinched this later on when Chatula ventured to 
interpose in a matter relating to Yongo's future conduct, 
and simulating anger, asked who this slave was who 
interfered in a discussion between two great men. 
Chatula took his punishment well, and, on the whole, 
Yongo was not displeased. 

Although his mission was crowned with success, 
Torday was not sorry to leave Yongo's village behind 
him, and retracing his steps to Luchima, headed directly 
for Kikwit by the shortest route, reaching it after a 
month's absence, when all hope of his return had been 
abandoned. 

Torday's success with the natives arose from the fact 
that he never offended their susceptibilities and was 
most careful in his respect of their customs. He 



174 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 

acknowledges that he did on several occasions infringe 
this punctilious observance, but that was with the 
Machiavellian intention of creating an opportunity for 
apologising afterwards and paying any attendant fine 
with willingness, all calculated to increase his popularity. 

A peaceful life at Kikwit was not to be Torday's lot, 
for a war had been carried on for two years between 
Moangi and Bumba, and it assumed such dimensions that 
the whole peace of the district was threatened. He there- 
fore set out in the hope of adjusting differences. These had 
originated in the firing of the bush belonging to Moangi 
by the people of Bumba. This means more to the native 
than is apparent on the surface, for the firing drives out 
the rats and other small deer on which the natives feed, 
and the grievance of the Moangi was that the people 
of Bumba had killed game which did not belong to them 
— a clear infringement of the game law. 

The chiefs of both parties were willing to accept 
intervention, and it was arranged that the two opposing 
chiefs should come alone and unarmed and meet 
Torday midway between the two forces. But the Moangi 
warriors would not allow their chief to go alone, and 
Torday's own followers expressed the same feeling 
towards their master. Nothing would dissuade them, 
so he set out with the chief, accompanied by several 
hundred warriors armed to the teeth. On arrival at 
the rendezvous they found the chief of Bumba already 
there with all his warriors. This was a critical situation. 
The great thing was to keep the two bands apart, and 
bring the chiefs together. The Moangi chief consented 
to this, but the Bumba chief refused. Persuasion and 
sarcasm had no effect, so the only thing left was to run 
from one party to the other like an express messenger, 
under a burning sun, carrying the views of each to the 
other. At last, after several hours of toil, a satisfactory 
conclusion was arrived at, and there only remained the 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 175 

application of kissi, i.e. fetish or charm, to make the 
peace binding. But where was the kissi ? It had been 
forgotten. But that useful boy Meysey came to the 
rescue. One day he had opened a box of poudre de riz, 
and asking what it was, was told it was kissi. Thinking 
kissi would be useful on such an important occasion 
he had brought it with him and now handed it to 
Torday. So these African potentates were solemnly 
powdered from head to foot with toilet powder, and a 
bloody and dangerous war stopped. If any censorious 
person objects to this innocent deception let him put 
himself in Torday's place. 

Then a visit to Yongo showed that the great chief had 
faithfully kept his promises. A visit to the village of 
Murikongo, a charming old man, as much respected 
as Yongo was feared, followed. To reach this village the 
Biere had to be crossed by means of a so-called bridge. 
This consisted of a single log of wood, some three feet 
below the surface of the water, so the only way to cross in 
safety was to cling for support to the shoulders of the 
man who preceded, who had to trust to his own sure- 
footedness. A feeling of amour-propre prevented Torday 
from accepting the offer to carry him over. A visit to 
Momambulu, chief of the Bakwasamba, with whom 
Yongo had been at war then followed. The most 
prominent part of his costume was his head-gear, a 
cap of red cloth bordered by two three feet wings 
stiffened with wire, closely resembling the head-dress 
of Alsatian peasant women. His uniform coat must, 
to judge by its gorgeousness, have once belonged to 
the general of a South American Republic, but the rest 
of his clothing was hardly to match ; it was simply a 
piece of native cloth round his loins. As usual, the 
theme of his conversation was his own prowess in the 
field ; he was thankful that Torday's intervention 
had saved Yongo and his people from utter extermina- 



176 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 

tion ; but Torday's opinion was that the boot fitted 
the other foot remarkably well ! Another visit was 
paid to Yongo, and it was arranged, with Yongo's 
consent, that Totchi, his favourite son, should accompany 
Torday to the river in order to see some of the wonders 
of civilisation ; but when the time of departure came 
Totchi was not to be found — he had been hidden by his 
mother's relatives, so Torday, much to his disappoint- 
ment, was obliged to start without him. 

An enthusiastic reception was accorded Torday on 
his return to Kikwit after an absence of six weeks. 
Torday had become the fairy godmother or mediator 
in those cases matrimonial where a hitch had occurred, 
and he was almost immediately called upon to exercise 
his functions. Love affairs are carried on, as a rule, in 
the greatest (apparent) secrecy, but every one knows 
what is going on. Even if one goes into a strange village 
where not a soul has seen him before, it is not difficult 
to pick out the girls who have a love affair on hand ; 
they are oiled and painted and carry all the family 
jewellery round their necks ; red beads have been 
imported in great quantities, and the girls , to make 
themselves beautiful, wear several pounds weight round 
their person. Not only so, but the love-sick maidens 
are unmercifully teased by their fellows ; one sees a 
knot of girls standing talking, and all of a sudden they 
begin to laugh, the loved one excepted, and all run off. 
It not infrequently happens that a man, in order to 
secure his bride as soon as possible, will give himself as 
a pledge for the bride-money advanced by a wealthy 
man, and thus practically put himself in the position 
of a slave — a great proof of devotion and self-sacrifice. 

[The information in these two chapters has been 
derived from Mr. E. Torday's book, Camp and Tramp 
in African Wilds, by kind permission of the author.] 




A Well-kept Village 

The native on the left has bought a new garment and fez. showing he has adopted Moham- 
medanism. He is carrying a ladder of the kind used all over Africa for getting on to huts. The 
man on the right is carrying a piece of sugar-cane. A flat stone for grinding rice is on the left. 
From the tree the seed for next year is suspended to preserve it from rats and white ants. 



CHAPTER XIV 

MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

It is remarkable how little is known, except to compara- 
tively very few, of the great African island of Madagas- 
car, an island so rich in evidence of past life, both 
animal and vegetable, and so prolific of the present. 
Here was the home of the gigantic and now extinct 
aepyornis as it is to-day of the lemur and the aye-aye. 
When compared with the vast continent against which 
if nestles, it is difficult to believe that it is really one 
thousand miles long and more that three hundred miles 
wide, with an area of two hundred and thirty thousand 
square miles, thus exceeding that of France, Belgium 
and Holland all put together. It contains an extensive 
elevated region occupying about two-thirds of the 
island to the east and north ; and as the watershed is 
much nearer the east than the west of the island, almost 
all the chief rivers flow, not into the Indian Ocean, but 
into the Mozambique Channel. A belt of dense forest 
runs all along the east side of the island, and is continued 
with many breaks along the western side, and scores 
of extinct volcanoes are found in several districts of the 
interior. Since 1895, when the island was taken over 
as a colony by the French, the country has been very 
much opened up, and the exclusiveness against the 
foreigner broken down. So late as the year 1899 the 
journey from Tamatave, the chief port, to Antananarivo 
the capital, took eight days by road, whereas now it 
takes but one by rail. 

When Dr. Sibree, who is still living, first landed some 
thirty years ago in Madagascar there were no luxurious 
M 177 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 179 

liners or Messageries Maritimes; he had to make the 
passage from Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, to 
Tamatave by means of a " bulloeker." This is a vessel 
which has been condemned for ordinary traffic, but is 
still considered good enough to convey from two to 
three hundred cattle from Tamatave to Port Louis or 
Reunion. It is hardly necessary to say that a voyage 
by such means was anything but pleasant. Happily 
the passage was a quick one, taking only three days. 
The harbour of Tamatave is protected by a coral reef, 
which has openings to the sea both north and south, 
the latter being the principal entrance ; it is somewhat 
difficult of access, and the ribs and framework of wrecked 
vessels are very frequently seen on the reef. Sometimes 
many hours and even days were spent in attempting to 
enter, but on this occasion the wind had proved un- 
expectedly favourable, and soon the cable was rattling 
through the hawse-hole and the vessel swung round at 
her moorings. 

At the time of Dr. Sibree's arrival Tamatave had not 
a very inviting appearance from the sea, and had it not 
been for the luxuriant vegetation of the pandanus, 
palms, and other tropical productions, nothing could 
have been less interesting than the native town, which 
possessed at that time few European residences. But 
in a comparatively short time, under French influence, 
the place was transformed ; many handsome buildings 
— offices, banks, shops, hotels, and government buildings 
— have been erected ; the town is lighted at night ; 
piers have been constructed, and in the suburbs shady 
walks and roads are bordered by comfortable villa 
residences and their luxuriant gardens. These form a 
striking contrast to the native huts when Dr. Sibree 
first landed, which were constructed of a framework of 
wood and bamboo, filled in with the leaves of the 
pandanus and the traveller's tree. In a few of these 



180 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

some attempts at neatness were observable, the walls 
being lined with coarse cloth made of the fibre of rofia 
palm leaves, and the floor covered with well-made 
mats of papyrus. But the general aspect of the native 
quarter of the town was filthy and repulsive ; heaps of 
putrefying refuse exhaled odours which warned one to 
get away as soon as possible. In almost every other 
house a large rum-barrel, ready tapped, showed what an 
unrestricted trade was doing to demoralise the people. 

The houses of the Malagasy officials, however, and 
those of the principal traders were substantially built of 
wooden framework, with walls and floors of planking, 
and thatched with the large leaves of the traveller's 
tree. No stone can be procured near Tamatave, nor 
can bricks be made there, as the soil is almost entirely 
sand ; the town itself is indeed built on a peninsula, a 
sandbank thrown up by the sea, under the shelter of 
the coral reefs which form the harbour. 

Before proceeding up-country a visit was paid to the 
Governor of the town and, as it was one of ceremony, it 
was the correct thing to use a filanjdna. This consists 
of a kind of armchair slung on two poles, carried on the 
shoulders of four stout men, or maromita. A courteous 
reception was given by the Governor, who was dressed 
in English fashion, with black silk top-hat and worked 
wool slippers. Needless to say the conversation was 
carried on by means of an interpreter. 

Next day preparations were made for the journey into 
the interior, to Antananarivo, the capital of the island, 
and as roads, according to our ideas, were conspicuous 
by their absence, and the travelling was sure to be 
rough, everything had to be securely packed except 
such articles as were absolutely necessary on the journey. 
It was not until the year 1901 that a railway was com- 
menced from the east coast to the interior, and it is 
only within the last three or four years that direct 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 181 

communication by rail has been completed between 
Tamatave and the capital. But until the French 
occupation in 1895, a road, in our sense of the word, 
did not exist in the island ; and all kinds of merchandise 
brought from the coast to the interior, or taken between 
other places were carried for great distances on men's 
shoulders. There were but three modes of conveyance, 
viz., one's own legs, the lakana or canoe, and the 
filanjdna or palanquin. During the first thirty years of 
Dr. Sibree's residence in Madagascar there was not a 
single wheeled vehicle of any kind to be seen in the 
interior, nor did even a wheelbarrow come under his 
observation during that time. The lightest carriage 
or the strongest wagon would have been equally im- 
practicable in parts of the forest where the path was 
almost lost in the dense undergrowth, and where the 
trees barely left room for a palanquin to pass. Nor 
could any team take a vehicle up and down some of 
the tremendous gorges, by tracks which sometimes 
wind like a corkscrew amidst rocks and twisted roots of 
trees, sometimes climb broad surfaces of slippery 
basalt, where a false step would send bearers and palan- 
quin together into steep ravines far below, and again 
are lost in sloughs of adhesive clay, in which the bearers 
at times sink to the waist, and when the traveller has 
to leap from the back of one man to another to reach 
firm standing-ground. Shaky bridges of primitive 
construction, often consisting of but a single tree trunk, 
were frequently the only means of crossing the streams ; 
while more often they had to be forded, one of the men 
going cautiously in advance to test the depth of the 
water, and occasionally disappearing. 

The first stage of the journey to Hivondrona, a large 
straggling village, was without incident, but full of 
interest. The path was bounded by coco-nut palms 
and broad-leaved bananas, as well as thousands of 



182 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

agaves with long spear-shaped prickly leaves ; nearer 
the sea stretched unbroken lines of pandanus, and every- 
where the pure, white flowers of orchids relieved the 
monotony of the dark foliage. Flocks of small green 
and white paroquets, green pigeons, scarlet cardinal- 
birds, and occasionally beautiful little sun-birds, with 
metallic colours of green, brown, and yellow flashed 
overhead, while butterflies and other insects crossed the 
path at every moment. The arrangements for passing 
the night at this village were primitive but pleasant, 
marred only by the assiduous attentions of a lower 
form of life. Next morning the journey was resumed 
for some distance down a river by means of dug-outs. 
These are hollowed out of trunks of trees, and having 
no keels are crazy craft requiring skilful handling. In 
the shallow water grew numerous gigantic arum lilies 
bearing flowers more than a foot in length. After cover- 
ing a considerable distance by water the journey on 
land was resumed, the path running close to the sea. 
Hundreds of little red crabs, about three inches long, 
were taking their morning bath, or watching at the 
mouth of their holes, down which they dived instantan- 
eously. One or more species of the Madagascar crabs 
has one of its pincers enormously enlarged, so that it 
is about the same size as the carapace, while the other 
claw is quite rudimentary. This great arm the little 
creature carries held up in a ludicrous, threatening 
manner as if defying all enemies. On the shore fine large 
shells of the Triton were found. These were used to call 
assemblies of the people ; a hole is bored in one side of 
the shell, and when properly blown it gives a deep and 
sonorous sound, but this requires some dexterity. 

On this, the east coast, for about three hundred miles 
south of Hivondrona there is a nearly continuous line 
of lakes and lagoons. They vary in distance from the 
sea from a hundred yards to a couple of miles, and in 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 188 

many places look like a very straight river or a broad 
canal. They are caused probably by the east coast 
rivers being continually blocked up at their outlets by 
bars of sand driven up by the prevailing south-east 
trade- wind and the southerly currents. King Radama I 
saw the advantage of connecting these lagoons, and so 
forming a waterway between the coast towns and 
Tamatave. The work was commenced but was inter- 
rupted by his death and not resumed until the French 
took it up again, and for twelve years a service of small 
steamers ran until the railway from the capital to 
Tamatave caused it to fall into comparative disuse. 

The scenery of this coast was of a very varied and 
beautiful nature ; islands stud the surface of the lakes, 
and there were thousands of a species of pandanus with 
large aerial roots. In the woods were the gum-copal 
tree and many kinds of palms, with slender graceful 
stems and crowns of feathery leaves. The climbing 
plants were abundant, forming ropes of various thick- 
nesses, crossing from tree to tree, and binding all to- 
gether in inextricable confusion, creeping on the ground, 
mounting to the tree-tops and sometimes hanging in 
coils like huge serpents. Great masses of hartstongue 
ferns were embedded in the forks of the branches, and 
wherever a tree trunk crossed the path it was covered 
with orchids. Among other trees was the celebrated 
tangena, from which was obtained the poison used in 
Madagascar from a remote period as an ordeal. This is 
about the size of an ordinary apple tree, the leaves of 
which are peculiarly grouped together in clusters, 
somewhat like those of the horse-chestnut. The poison 
was procured from the kernel of the fruit, and until the 
reign of King Radama II was used with fatal effect in 
the trial of accused persons, and caused the death of 
thousands of people. 

There is a large variety of fish in the lagoons, one 



184 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

species of which has a habit, when caught, of inflating 
itself to a great size ; another has poisonous spines 
sticking up from its back ; prawns are caught often a 
foot in length ; one species of shrimp has one large claw, 
like the crab mentioned above. Off the coast are many 
species of sharks, among them the hammer-head, and 
a sawfish was caught measuring fourteen feet from the 
tip of the saw to the end of the tail. 

There are many species of snakes in the island, but 
happily the bite of none of them is fatal. Madagascar 
is the home of the lemur and that peculiar animal, the 
aye-aye. The habits of the lemur are simple enough. 
They exhibit great vivacity, and are much given to 
leaping from one object to another, in which they are 
aided by the pad-like structure of the soles (or palms) of 
their four hands. They are very good-natured and tame 
and full of fun while still young, but become cross and 
vicious when old. The aye-aye, though apparently not 
scarce, is difficult to obtain, as it comes from its retreat 
only at night, besides which the people have a supersti- 
tious fear of it, so that even a large reward is often 
insufficient to induce them to attempt its capture. 

It is included among the four-handed animals, but it 
is very unlike the monkeys, having a smaller brain and 
much less intelligence, and from its powerful teeth 
was at first thought to be a link between them and the 
rodentia, or gnawing animals. Its food consists of a 
wood-boring larva, which tunnels into the wood of 
certain trees. To obtain these the animal is furnished 
with most powerful chisel-shaped incisor teeth, with 
which it cuts away the outer bark. As, however, the 
grub retreats to the end of its hole, one of the fingers 
of the aye-aye's hands is slightly lengthened, but much 
diminished in thickness, and is furnished with a hook- 
like claw. This finger is used as a probe, inserted in the 
tunnel, and the dainty morsel drawn forth from its 




Old Vii,lage Gateway with Circular Stone 

The stone is levered into position closing and opening. A deep fosse or ditch surrounding 
the village completes ics fortification. The man in front is carrying two packages secured to a 
pole in the usual manner of the country. 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 185 

hiding-place. Its eyes being very large it can see well 
in the night, and its widely expanded ears can catch the 
faint sound of the grub at work, and the thumbs of the 
feet, largely developed, enable the animal to take a 
firm hold of the tree while using its teeth. 

The creature somewhat resembles a large cat in size, 
being about three feet in total length, of which its large 
bushy tail forms quite half. Its colour is dark brown, 
the throat being yellowish grey. The probe finger is 
used when the aye-aye drinks ; it is carried so rapidly 
from the water to the mouth that the liquid seems to 
pass in a continual stream. A remarkable fact about 
the structure of the lower jaw is that the two sides are 
joined together only by a strong ligament, and do not, 
as in other animals, form one connected circle of bone. 
The aye-aye constructs true nests, about two and a half 
feet in diameter, composed of rolled-up leaves of the 
traveller's tree, lined with twigs and dry leaves ; the 
opening of the nest is at the side. It is said to be very 
savage and strikes rapidly with its hands. This is one 
of the many instances which the animal life of Madagas- 
car presents of isolation from other forms. It remains 
the only species of its genus, and like many of the pecu- 
liar birds of the island, is one of the many proofs that 
Madagascar has for long ages been separated from 
Africa ; so that while allied forms have become extinct 
on the continent, here, protected from the competition 
of stronger animals, many birds, mammals and insects 
have been preserved, and so this island is a kind of 
museum of ancient and elsewhere unknown forms of 
life. 

As far as the large village of Andovoranto the path 
had followed the seashore southward, but now a start 
was made into the interior. The village, which is situated 
at the mouth of the River Iharoka, would be an im- 
portant seaport were it not for the bar at the mouth of 



186 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

the river. The change from tramping under the weight 
of heavy packages was a pleasant one to the porters 
rather than to Dr. Sibree, for in the exuberance of their 
spirits they raced every boat they overtook, and as the 
canoes were easily capsized, and the river was infested 
with crocodiles the passenger's anticipations were not 
very pleasurable. The Malagasy have a superstitious 
dread of these reptiles, and instead of killing them try to 
propitiate them with offerings. 

As they paddled up the river the banks became lined 
with bamboo, sugar-cane, manioc, bananas, palms, 
pandanus and other trees, while the shallow water was 
covered with blue water-lilies and other flowering plants. 
The traveller's tree, with its graceful crown of broad 
green leaves which grow at the top of its trunk, resem- 
bling very closely those of the banana, became very 
plentiful. It is so called because if the base of the leaf- 
stalk be pierced a supply of cool water can always be 
obtained. The leaf being broad the moisture of the air 
is condensed and trickles down to the base where it 
joins the stem. The tree is useful in other ways, too, 
for the leaves are employed for thatching as well as for 
plates or dishes, the bark is beaten out and forms 
flooring, and the trunk supplies timber for the frame- 
work. 

After leaving Maromby, a village where they resumed 
their land journey, Dr. Sibree narrowly escaped disaster, 
for as he was crossing a stream on the shoulders of one 
of his porters the man suddenly sank waist deep in a 
thick, yellow mud, nearly pitching his burden into the 
water. But he managed to scramble from the shoulders 
of one porter to those of another, and so contrived to 
reach the bank. They then struck right into the hills, 
up and down, down and up, for nearly four hours. The 
road was a mere footpath, and sometimes not even that, 
but the bed of a torrent made by the heavy rains. It 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 187 

wound sometimes round the hills and sometimes straight 
up them, and then down into the valleys, at inclinations 
difficult enough to get along without anything to carry, 
but with heavy loads requiring immense exertion. Dr. 
Sibree's palanquin described all sorts of angles ; some- 
times he was resting nearly on his head, and presently 
almost on his feet. When winding round the hills they 
were constantly in places where a false step of the bearers 
might have sent them all tumbling down sixty or 
seventy, and sometimes a hundred feet into the valley 
below. A dozen times or so they had to cross streams 
foaming over rocks and stones, to scramble down to 
which, and out again, were feats requiring no ordinary 
dexterity. Some of these scenes were exceedingly 
beautiful and, with the rushing foaming waters, overhung 
with palms, ferns, plantains and bamboos made subjects 
in which a landscape artist would have delighted. 

Near Ranomafana, the next halting place, was a 
spring, the water of which was so hot that the hand 
could not bear it. Here Dr. Sibree secured several 
specimens of that curious production of nature, the lace 
plant. The leaves spring from a bulb somewhat resem- 
bling a potato, which can be eaten. In this village, 
granaries were erected on posts ^ve or six feet above the 
level of the ground. Each of these posts had a round 
plate of wood at the top polished very smooth. This was 
done to protect the grain from rats which infest the 
locality. The ladder leading to the opening of the 
granaries was a very primitive contrivance, being 
merely a pole with notches cut in it. 

The path now became much more difficult, the hills 
being higher and steeper, and it was marvellous how the 
men managed to carry their burdens without slipping. 
The palanquin bearers generally wore nothing but a 
loin-cloth, or a small sleeveless jacket, but in the cool 
mornings they threw over their shoulders a lamba of 



188 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

rofia or hemp cloth. Lamha is the Malagasy word for 
cloth generally, but it is also applied specifically to the 
chief article of native dress. Rop,a fibre is much used 
for tying up garden plants, and is known as " rofia 




The Lace Plant 



grass." This is incorrect, as it is the fibre of the leaf of 
the rofia palm. The bearers took the work in spells and 
the men would relieve each other, even when going at a 
trot, without slackening speed. 

The next stage to the village of B^forona was more 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 189 

difficult and trying than before ; a small company of 
soldiers brought up in the early years of the century by 
Captain Le Sage laid themselves down in despair at the 
difficulties of the road they had to traverse. At this 
point Dr. Sibree's party had now entered some way into 
the lower and wider of the two belts of dense forest 
which extend for several hundred miles along the 
eastern side of Madagascar, and cover the mountains 
which form the great ramparts of the high land of the 
interior. There is a continuous forest from nearly the 
north of the island to almost the southern extremity ; 
its greatest width is about fifty miles north of Antongil 
Bay ; but to the south of Antsihanaka provinces it 
divides into two. On the western side of the island 
there is no such continuous line of forest ; there are 
many extensive portions covered with wood, but in 
many places the vegetation consists more of scattered 
clumps of trees ; while in the south-west, which is the 
driest part of the island, the prevailing trees and shrubs 
are euphorbias, and are spiny in character. 

Beforona is situated in an almost circular valley ; 
the houses, like most in this part of the country, are 
arranged in a square. The floors are generally raised a 
foot or two above the surface of the ground, and are 
formed of bark, beaten out flat and laid on bamboos, 
the framing and roof being made of poles or bamboos, 
filled in with the stalks of the traveller's tree, and 
thatched with leaves of the same tree. In the centre of 
these village squares was a flagstaff, and in others a pole 
with the skulls and horns of bullocks fixed to it. These 
are mostly memorials of the festivities connected with 
the last observance of the circumcision ceremonies, 
which are very important events with all the Malagasy 
tribes. Here the boys use an instrument called tsirika 
with which they kill small birds. It consists of a long 
and straight palm stem taken from a small and beautiful 



190 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

palm resembling a bamboo. A small arrow tipped with 
an iron point is inserted, and is discharged by blowing 
at the larger end, in the same way as the Indians of 
South America use the blow-pipe. 

Resuming their journey the path became still more 
difficult ; at one part of the road there is a long slope 
of clay known as the " weeping-place of the bullocks," 
so called from the labour and difficulty with which the 
poor animals mount the steep ascent on their way 
to the coast. Notwithstanding the fatigues of the 
journey it was impossible not to be struck with 
admiration and delight at the grandeur of the vegetation. 
The profusion and luxuriance of vegetable life were very 
extraordinary. The trees were distinguished not so 
much by their girth as by their height. It must, however, 
be borne in mind that masses of floral colour are not to 
be found in the tropics — for these one must go to the 
temperate zones ; the tropics yield profusion and 
variety of foliage. Orchids, however, were very abun- 
dant ; wherever a fallen tree hung across the path there 
they found a lodging-place, and beautified the decaying 
trunks with their exquisite waxy flowers of pink and 
white. One thing strikes the traveller in the forest 
primeval very forcibly — the absence to sight of animal 
life and the song of birds. There is, however, plenty of 
life, but it has to be looked for. 

On the other hand, the zoological peculiarity of the 
island consists as much, or more, in what is wanting as 
in what is present ; there is a strange absence of the 
larger species of mammalia. The large carnivora are all 
wanting ; there are no lions, tigers, leopards, panthers 
or hyenas. The large thick-skinned animals, so plentiful 
in the rivers and forests of Africa, have no representa- 
tives in Madagascar ; no elephant browses in the woods ; 
no rhinoceros traverses the plains or hippopotamus 
lazily gambols in the streams, although there was a 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 191 

small species of the last named pachyderm living during 
the last quaternary epoch. Fleet-footed animals — 
antelope, deer, gazelle, giraffe, zebra, and quagga — 
are entirely absent ; and the ox, sheep, goat, horse, and 
ass, have all been introduced. The order of mammalia 
most developed here is the quadrumana (four-handed), 
but this again is represented by but a single division, 
the lemurs and their allies, which are the most character- 
istic animals of the island. There are no true monkeys, 
baboons or apes, gorillas or chimpanzees. The lemurs 
are very distinct from all these, and are pretty creatures, 
without the grotesqueness or ferocity of the allied 
species. They vary in size from that of a large monkey 
to a species not larger than a rat. They are mostly 
gentle in disposition, and some kinds are tame enough 
to be kept about the house as pets. 

Among the bird population there are some eighteen 
species of herons and storks which are seen in the marshes 
and rice-fields. One of the most noticeable of these is 
the takatra or tufted umber, a long-legged stork with a 
large plume or crest. It builds an extraordinarily large 
nest , which is visible at a considerable distance, and 
might be taken at first sight for half a load of hay. It 
is usually placed in the fork of a large tree, and is com- 
posed of sticks and grass, plastered inside with a thick 
lining of mud. It is from four and a half to six feet in 
diameter, dome-shaped, with a lateral entrance, and is 
divided into three chambers, in one of which its two large 
eggs are laid. The entrance is by a narrow tunnel, and 
is always placed so as to be difficult of access, though the 
nest itself may be quite easy to approach. From this 
conspicuous nest, and the sedate way in which the 
tdkatra marches about seeking for its food, many native 
superstitions have gathered about the bird, one of which 
is that those who destroy its nest will become lepers. 
If the sovereign's path was crossed by a tdkatra, it was 



192 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

considered unlucky to proceed, and the royal procession 
had to retrace its steps. 

Evidences were not wanting at this point to show 
that Dr. Sibree had now penetrated the country of the 
Hovas, or ruling tribe, and that he was within measurable 
distance of the capital, and it was with a glad heart that 
one morning he took his seat in his palanquin with the 
knowledge that he had embarked on the last stage of a 
long journey, not unaccompanied by many and serious 
risks. As he approached the capital he was struck 
by the number of villages to be seen in every direction, 
many of them enclosed in high walls made of red clay, 
laid with care in regular courses, and apparently hard 
and durable. The houses were all built of the same 
material, and many of them were enclosed in circular 
and others in square courtyards with gateways. Many of 
the villages were surrounded with deep fosses, sometimes 
two and even three yards deep, generally filled with 
bananas, peach and other fruit trees ; some had walls 
and stone gateways, giving one the impression that 
there must have formerly been much internal warfare 
to need such elaborate defences. This indeed was the 
case before Imerina was governed by one sovereign 
about one hundred years ago. Within a, mile or two of 
the city they passed for a quarter of an hour through a 
perfect cloud of locusts, which covered the ground and 
filled the air. At a distance these insects appeared 
like a low-lying cloud of dust, and when near and seen 
in certain directions, the sun shining on their wings 
gave them almost the appearance of a snow shower. 
Many varieties of locust are common in Madagascar, 
and occasionally they do great damage to the crops. 
The Malagasy, however, make use of them for food, and 
when a cloud of them appears, men, women, and children 
are all out catching them, and for a few days afterwards 
great brown heaps of them are to be seen at all the little 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 193 

wayside shops. They are said to taste something like 
shrimps. 

The capital was much larger than Dr. Sibree expected, 
and he could not help being struck by its size and fine 
situation. It is built on the summit and slopes of a 
lofty rocky hill some two miles long from north to south, 
which was covered with dark-looking houses. In the 
centre stood conspicuous the great bulk of the chief 
palace and its smaller neighbour, their arched verandahs 
and steep roofs, all painted white, and shining in the 
morning sun, towering over every other object. 



CHAPTER XV 

MADAGASCAR : 

Below the capital stretches for many miles the great 
rice-plain of Betsimitatrata, the " granary of Antanan- 
arivo, through which the river Ikopa winds northward. 
This plain was formerly an immense marsh, but since 
the river has been embanked it has become the finest 
rice-plain of the island. Sometimes during heavy rains 
the embankments give way and all the population is 
called out to help in stopping the breaches. The plain 
is irrigated by canals which draw their supply from the 
Ikopa. 

There are two hundred and ten species of birds at 
present known in Madagascar, which include forty-one 
genera and a hundred and twenty-four species which 
are all peculiar to the island. The rapacious birds com- 
prise twenty-two species, the majority being hawks, 
kites and buzzards, with several owls and two eagles. 
The most common is the papango, or Egyptian kite, 
which feeds on lizards, snakes, mice, rats and small 
birds. Another widely spread rapacious bird is the 
hitsikilsika or kestrel, a vivacious, noisy little bird, 
by no means shy. Among some tribes this is a tabooed 
bird, and it is a crime to kill it. Voromakery, or 
" Powerful bird," is a falcon with extremely rapid 
flight, and, though small, is very courageous. Many of 
the Malagasy hawks are beautiful birds, with horizontal 
bars of alternate light and dark colour on breast and 
tail ; but perhaps the most handsome of them all is 
the rayed gymnogene, which is of a pearly-grey colour, 
barred with black, while on the tail and quill feathers 

l?i 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 195 

are broad bands of pure white and intensely glossy 
black. The bird stands high, having very long legs, 
with a crest of feathers on the crown and neck. 

During the summer, that is, from November to 
February, terrific thunderstorms occur, when the forked 
lightning plays incessantly, and crash follows crash 
without interval, the hills around echoing back the 
roar. They are awfully grand but attended by a con- 
siderable element of danger. The attendant rain is 
exceedingly heavy, and the steep streets of the town 
used to be transformed into rushing torrents and a 
series of cascades, tearing up the rough pavements and 
piling the stones together in a disorderly mass like the 
bed of a cataract. During these storms hailstones 
sometimes fall large enough to kill sheep and small 
animals. Very beautiful are the storms of lightning 
unaccompanied by thunder. 

At certain seasons of the year some insects are found 
which produce a constant dropping of water. They 
appear to be small beetles, and gather in clusters of 
twenty or thirty. So great is the quantity of water 
extracted from the tree on which they gather that the 
ground beneath is saturated with moisture. 

At the time of Dr. Sibree's residence in Madagascar 
the arrangements of a Hova house were very simple, and 
were almost always the same. The visitor called out 
before entering, " Haody, haody ? " (May we come in ?) 
After waiting a minute or so, during which the hostess 
was reaching down a clean mat for the visitor to sit on, 
she called out, "MandrosoaTompokae" (Walk forward, 
sir). The visitor then stepped over the raised threshold 
into the room. In some parts of Imerina a kind of closet, 
resembling more a large oven than anything else, was 
made of clay at the south-east corner, opposite the door, 
and here, as in an Irish cabin, the pig found a place at 
night, and above it the fowls roosted. Near the door the 



196 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

large wooden mortar for pounding rice generally stood, 
and near it the pestle, a long round piece of wood, and 
the large shallow wooden dish in which the rice was 
winnowed from husk removed by pounding. At the 
middle of the eastern side were two or three globular 
water-pots, the mouths covered with a small basket to 
keep out the dust. On the west side was the hearth, a 
small enclosure about three feet square. In this were 
fixed five stones on which the rice cooking-pots were 
arranged over the fire. Over this there was sometimes a 
light framework upon which the cooking-pots were 
placed when not in use. There was no chimney, the 
smoke finding its way out as best it could ; consequently 
the house was generally black and sooty above, long 
strings of cobweb and soot hanging down from the roof. 
Such appendages were considered as marks of long 
residence and honour, and so the phrase " black from 
soot " was a very honourable appellation. The north- 
east corner of the house was the sacred portion of it, 
the corner where the war-chant was sung, and where 
any religious act connected with the former idolatry was 
performed, and in which the household charm was kept 
in a basket suspended from the wall. In this corner also 
was the fixed bedstead which, especially in royal house- 
holds, was often raised some height above the ground 
and reached by a notched post serving as a ladder, and 
sometimes screened with mats or coarse cloth. West 
of this, close to the north roof-post, was the place of 
honour where guests were invited to sit down, a clean 
mat being spread as a seat, just as a chair is handed in 
European houses. 

One cannot fail to notice a small longish lump of 
light-coloured clay stuck under the eaves of houses, 
or in fact in any sheltered place, and on breaking off a 
piece the lump of clay will be found to contain a number 
of cells, all filled with caterpillars or spiders in a numbed 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 197 

and semi-lifeless condition. The maker of these cells 
is a black wasp about an inch long, with russet wings, 
and as one sits in the verandah of his house he may often 
hear a shrill buzz somewhere up in the rafters, and there 
the little worker is busy bringing in pellets of clay with 
which she builds up the walls of the cell. Kneading the 
earth with her mandibles on the banks of a stream she 
quickly forms it into a pellet about the size of a pea 
which she picks up and flies away back to the verandah. 
This pellet is placed on the layer already laid, carefully 
smoothed and " bonded in " with the previous structure, 
until a cell is completed. Spiders are caught by the wasp, 
stung so as to be insensible, but not killed, and then the 
egg is laid in their bodies, so that on being hatched the 
grub finds itself in the midst of food. 

Another species of solitary wasp is a much larger 
insect, about two inches in length, and she makes nests 
which are extremely hard, and are like half -buried 
native water-pots with the mouths facing the observer 
and arranged regularly one above the other. When 
finished they are plastered over with rough gravel. 
Unlike the first insect she does not knead the material 
near a stream but carries water to the dry earth and 
shapes it into balls. These cells, too, are stocked with 
caterpillars. Another wasp does not build cells, but 
digs a burrow in the ground. All the wasps drag or 
carry their prey on foot. One small wasp first amputates 
the legs of any spider she may have captured, then 
slings it on her back. Some wasps seem to hunt by 
scent for long distances ; some dash down violently 
into the web of the spider, and catch him as he drops 
from it ; while others again seize their prey upon the 
wing, especially the social wasps. The males of all are 
lazy and do no work. 

Rice culture occupies a large amount of the time and 
attention of the Malagasy. It is their staff of life and 



198 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

they cannot understand how Europeans can make a 
meal without it. The ground is dug and prepared, 
the grain sown, the young seedHngs transplanted to 
their permanent quarters in the soft mud of the rice- 
fields, then in January begins the harvest. The crop 
is cut with a straight-bladed knife, and the stalks are 
laid in long lines along the fields, the heads of one 
sheaf being covered over by the cut ends of the stalks 
of the next sheaf ; this is to prevent the ears from drying 
too quickly and the grain falling out before it reaches 
the threshing-floor, which is merely a space of hard 
earth. No flail is used, but handfuls of the rice-stalks 
are beaten on a stone fixed in the earth until the grain 
and straw are separated. The unhusked rice is then 
carried in baskets to the owner's compound and stored 
in large round pits with a circular opening dug in the hard 
red soil. Small animals and birds pick up a very good 
living at this time and some of the chief embankments 
swarm with rats and mice. Of the birds the most con- 
spicuous are the cardinal-bird, the white egret, the white- 
necked crow and a beautiful kingfisher of lovely purplish- 
blue, with yellow and buff breast and belly. It flies in 
a curious jerking manner, like a flash of purple light. 

There is a great variety of spiders in Madagascar, one 
of which, a large handsome insect, spins huge webs. 
Fairly successful attempts have been made to employ the 
silk in the manufacture of a woven fabric, but it is very 
doubtful if it could be procured in sufficient quantities 
to be of commercial value. Silk, however, from the 
silkworm is produced to a considerable extent. Thcj 
moth is a large and beautiful insect, with shades ol 
buff and brown and yellow, and with a large eye-like] 
spot on the hind wings. Another moth has long tail-like] 
appendages to its wings, enlarged at the ends. Their 
points have two spiral twists or folds, very graceful inj 
appearance ; the wings are light buff with lemon- 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 199 

yellow. It measures eight and a half inches from shoul- 
der to point of tail, and eight inches across the upper 
wings. There is a very dark species of which the Mala- 
gasy are afraid, as they think that their presence in the 
house presages death. But the most beautiful of the 
Malagasy lepidoptera is a diurnal or day moth which 
most call a butterfly, a large and lovely insect, with 
golden-green, crimson and black markings, and edged 
all round its wings and tails with delicate pure white. 
It is a curious fact that the nearest ally to this species 
is a native of Hayti and Cuba. In some seasons it is 
abundant, but in others scarce. 

On the open downs, when the sun is shining, the air is 
filled with the hum of chirping insect life from the many 
species of grasshoppers and small locusts which cover 
the ground. Every step among the long dry grass dis- 
turbs a score of these insects, which leap in all directions 
from one's path. The majority of these are of various 
shades of brown and green, and some of the larger 
species of grasshopper are remarkable for their protec- 
tive colouring. The legs and wings of one are exactly 
like dry grass ; the body is like a broad blade of some 
green plant, the antennae are two little tufts, like yellow 
grass, and the eyes are just like two small brown 
seeds. Other grasshoppers are entirely like green grass 
blades and stalks, and others again resemble, equally 
closely, dried grass. One is puzzled to guess where the 
vital organs can be placed in such dry-looking little 
sticks. There is one species of mantis, also, which turn 
round their heads and look at one in quite an uncanny 
manner, and their formidable serrated forelegs or arms, 
put up in mock pious fashion, give them a distinctly 
different appearance from the other insects. 

But the most handsome insect on the downs is the 
dog-locust. It is large and gorgeously coloured, the 
body being barred with stripes of yellow and black, 



200 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

while the head and thorax are green and blue and gold, 
with shades of crimson, and the wings are bright scarlet. 
Its protection is its most abominable smell, which safe- 
guards it from its natural enemies and from the collec- 
tor's cabinet. Immense earthworms may be seen on 
the downs, four or five times as big as those we are 
familiar with — in fact they resemble small serpents. 

The French have effected many improvements in the 
methods of building, but a good number of the old 
style of village still remains. They mostly have deep 
fosses, cut in the hard red soil surrounding them, about 
twenty to thirty feet across, and as many feet deep, 
sometimes still deeper ; and before guns and cannons 
were brought into the country they must have formed 
very effective defences against an enemy, especially as 
there is often a double or even treble series of them. 
The gateways, sometimes three deep, are formed of 
stone, often in large slabs, and instead of a gate a great 
circular stone, eight or ten feet in diameter, was rolled 
across the opening and was fitted into rough grooves on 
either side, and wedged up with other stones inside the 
gate. In the fosses, which are, of course, always damp, 
with good soil, ferns and wild plants grow luxuriantly ; 
and the bottom forms a plantation in which peach, 
banana, guava and other fruit trees are cultivated, as 
well as coffee, arums, and a variety of vegetables. Tall 
trees frequently grow there, so that these fosses are 
often the prettiest feature of the village. 

Seen from a distance, Malagasy villages often look 
very pretty and picturesque, but the enchantment 
which distance lends is utterly dispelled on closer 
acquaintance. They are really most insanitary and 
filthy. 

When passing through the forest one cannot fail to 
notice here and there a long white bag of a silky -looking 
texture. On cutting this open it is found to contain a 




t/3 .t; 

ci a 

a — 

s a 

Pi; rt 

Pi -^ 

< ^ 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 201 

wriggling mass of caterpillars. Another noticeable nest 
is that of a small species of black ant. It is often as 
large as a football and is made of cow-dung or vegetable 
matter. It contains a series of thin floors separated by 
pillars. In these nests is found a number of small but 
handsome beetles ; but no one has been able to explain 
the object of their presence there. Another abode of 
the ant tribe takes the form of a large mound with a 
crater-like opening at the top. There are other species 
which do not construct habitations but live in the crev- 
ices of the bark of trees or in the stalks of plants. 
Butterflies are scarce in the woods, but caterpillars are 
numerous. Reptiles are not very conspicuous ; one 
seldom sees a snake, although probably the dense 
undergrowth affords them sufficient concealment, and 
although they are for the most part innocuous, and some 
of them very pretty, the natives appear to have a super- 
stitious dread of them. Lizards are now and then seen 
of various sizes, some repulsive and others attractive, 
while some have the protective colouring developed to 
such perfection that it is difficult to distinguish them 
even when gazing at them at very short range. 

Chameleons are very frequently met with, not only 
in the woods but also in the open country. Their 
colouring is often very beautiful, with its shades of 
green and yellow and black, brown and red markings, 
and the changes of colour according to the different 
surroundings are very rapid. The bright tints they 
exhibit in sunshine and on leaves become dull dark brown 
in the shade or on dark-coloured resting places. Some- 
times they lose all colour, for Dr. Sibree one day saw, 
on the path near the woods, a chameleon in the coils of 
a small snake which had wound itself three times 
round the body, and the curious fact was that the 
chameleon was perfectly white. He unwound the snake 
and the chameleon soon resumed its ordinary colouring. 



202 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 



One species has a nose dilated and toothed on each 
side ; another has the top of the head conically pro- 
duced ; while four species have two flat diverging nasal 
prominences covered with large horny plates ; and in 
yet another species the single long conical appendage to 
the nose is flexible. The largest Madagascar chameleon 
known is about a foot long, and is called ramilaheloka, 
which may be translated as "naughty old boy," 
probably from its uncanny appearance and earthy 
colour. 



CHAJut/ELEON EOt^OJ CAUDA 




\ 



CHAMCUEON WLLSIX. 



In walking through the woods one constantly comes 
across traces of the wild boar, or more properly, the 
river-hog, although the animal itself is rarely seen. It 
is a somewhat ugly creature, with high withers, long 
back, and little hair. It has an enormous tubercle, 
supported by a bony protuberance in the jaw, which 
renders the face of the animal extremely disagreeable. 
It does much damage to the plantations, but provides 
excellent sport not unattended by danger, for it is 
armed with long and powerful tusks. 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 203 

The traveller will perhaps encounter a sickly sweet 
smell which arises from the honey stored in a neigh- 
bouring hollow tree by wild bees. The honey is excellent, 
and is collected and sold by the woodmen. It differs 
very little from the domesticated bee with which 
we are familiar. Its greatest enemies are the death's- 
head moth, rats and mice, and a certain kind of wasp. 

The human inhabitants of these forests are few and 
far between, and occupy themselves chiefly in cutting 
wood. There is one tribe, however, of an extremely 
retiring nature ; so shy are they that, it is said, they 
die of fright if captured. If all that is reported of them 
be true they must be of quite a different stock from the 
other inhabitants of the island. 

Iron is very abundant in Madagascar, and foundries 
for smelting the ore are frequent. The " feather- 
bellows " used is a primitive affair. It consists of two 
cylinders, about five feet long, and six to eight inches 
wide, made from the trunks of trees hollowed out. These 
are made air-tight at the lower end and fixed in the earth 
in a vertical position, about two feet apart. In each 
cylinder a hole is made a few inches from the ground, 
and in these a bamboo cane or an old musket barrel is 
inserted, the other end being fixed into the stone or clay 
wall of the furnace. A piston with feather valves is 
fitted into each cylinder, and the shafts or piston-rods 
are worked up and down alternately by a man or boy. 
These foundries are always situated near a running 
stream of water, so that the ore may be washed and 
cleared as much as possible from earth and sand. The 
furnace itself is a hole about six feet in diameter, and 
one or two feet deep ; its walls are of rough stonework, 
built up three or four feet, and thickly plastered outside 
with clay. Charcoal is used for smelting, and notwith- 
standing these rude appliances and methods, the iron 
produced has been pronounced by competent judges 



204 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

to be of excellent quality. Spade-blades, knives, nails, 
bolts, and many other articles are produced by the 
native smiths. 

There are several spiders which must be included 
among the noxious insects. One of these is greatly 
dreaded by the natives, who believe that its bite is 
fatal if cauterisation or other remedy be not adopted 
immediately. The effects appear to be paroxysms of 
pain causing the patient to scream out. Many of the 
spiders are grotesque and weird in appearance. One is 
small and reddish in colour, and much broader than it 
is long, each side projecting into a long sharp spike — 
indeed it is spiky in several directions and is utterly 
unlike any other known spider. A traveller on the 
south-east coast speaks of the uncanny aspect of one of 
the villages in which he stayed ; it was like a town of 
wicked enchanters, for all the houses were festooned and 
closely linked together overhead by tangled masses of 
gigantic spiders' webs, amongst which lay in wait 
monstrous black spiders. Some of the coast villages, 
he says, were almost completely roofed in by these 
great webs. 

Many of the stays of the larger spiders' webs stretch 
over spaces quite thirty feet wide, and the spaces 
between them are filled in with the webs of smaller 
species, which appear to be tolerated by their bigger 
neighbours. Some of the spiders show wonderful 
protective resemblance ; some resembling flowers, 
others the bark of trees. A venomous spider whose 
bite is often fatal, causing a swelling which extends 
over the whole body, is covered with tubercles, and its 
legs are roughened like those of a crustacean. 

The woods contain at least fifty species of quadrupeds 
in addition to the lemurs, but as they are small, and 
many of them burrowing, they are not at all conspicuous. 
One group is similar in habit and appearance to the 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 205 

European hedgehog, but it is not of the same family. 
Some have a covering of strong prickly spines, while in 
others it consists rather of prickly hairs. The natives 
cook and eat it, and it has rather the taste of pork, but 
is richer and greasier. The tail-less tenrec is the largest 
and best known of its family. It hibernates for six 
months of the year. Thirteen to twenty-five young ones 
are born at one time. They feed chiefly on earthworms, 
and also on roots, fruits and insects. The rice tenrec 
does immense damage to the rice crops by burrowing 
into the earth and rooting up the young plants. Another 
species has webbed toes and a thick and powerful tail, 
and is fitted for an aquatic life. The smallest species 
is only two inches long, and has a tail of three inches. 

Of the lemurs there are no fewer than thirty-nine 
different species in Madagascar, of which ten are 
lemuroida, or lemur-like. There are three species of 
the latter, known as simpona. They are diurnal, and 
live in companies of from six to eight. Often they may 
be surprised at sunrise, squatting on the fork of a tree, 
their long legs bent under them, touching the chin, 
their hands resting on their knees, stretching out their 
arms and legs so as not to lose a single ray of the newly 
risen sun. Their food is entirely vegetable, and they 
are formed for a purely arboreal life, for there is a mem- 
brane along the arms and legs which acts to a certain 
extent as a parachute, so that they can make leaps of 
from twenty-five to thirty feet without apparent effort, 
and they seem to fly through the air. On the rare 
occasions when they leave the woods they advance by 
leaps, as if their feet were tied together, and have a most 
comical appearance as they go across a bit of open 
ground. One kind is silvery grey in colour, with black 
head and neck ; another is entirely white, except for its 
dark brown face ; and a third species is black or dark 
brown. 



206 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

The true lemurs, being of a shy and retiring habit, 
are seldom seen, but Dr. Sibree had the good fortune 
once to see a pair of the kind called red lemur cross a 
path near his house. These were large and handsome 
animals, warm reddish brown in colour, and took 
astonishing leaps in a most graceful manner ; but they 
were out of sight in an instant, and collectors say that it 
is easier to shoot a flying bird than a lemur in motion. 

In the small streams which occur at the bottom of 
many of the ravines, one often comes across the curious 
nests of the pensile weaver-bird, which are beautifully 
constructed, shaped like a chemical retort, and suspended 
from the extremities of the branches of trees, and usually 
over running water. They are about a foot long, the 
bulb giving ample room for the eggs or nestlings, and 
the tube forming the entrance from below is three to 
four inches in diameter. Nests of another species are 
globular. The Madagascar bee-eater is one of the most 
beautiful birds to be seen in the island, both from its 
elegance of form and its bright colouring of various 
shades of green. It has a very long curved beak and 
an extremely long tail with two long feathers extending 
beyond the others. The nests are excavated about a 
foot deep in a sandbank bordering streams. The couas, 
a genus of cuckoos peculiar to Madagascar, are another 
group conspicuous from their size and colouring. The 
blue coua is a handsome bird, and the crested coua is 
found all over the higher regions. One species is known 
as the " snail-breaker," as these molluscs form its 
principal food. 



CHAPTER XVI 

MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

Mention has already been made of the two belts of 
forest which lie along the east coast of the island. At 
about lat. 17° S. these two belts unite, and the open space 
south of the junction is inhabited by the Sihanaka tribe. 
This valley or plain is about thirty miles across ; it is 
perfectly level, and the greater portion of it is marsh, 
and at the north-eastern corner of the marsh is a fine 
lake, Alaotra, connected with the sea by the river 
Maningory. This tribe was independent until con- 
quered by the Hovas. Dr. Sibree was invited to accom- 
pany a party who were setting out to explore this least- 
known part of the island. After a toilsome journey the 
vast plain of Antsihanaka was reached, and the first 
thing to attract Dr. Sibree's attention was the variety 
and beauty of the grasses, some kinds of which grow to 
a height of eight or ten feet, although this is not peculiar 
to this locality, as most of the grass in Madagascar grows 
to a great height if not burnt down. The town of 
Ambatondrazaka was reached, a place of about four 
hundred houses, and a pleasing contrast to the collec- 
tions of wretched hovels, dignified by the name of village, 
through which the party had passed ; the lofpa^ or govern- 
ment house, was situated in one corner of a large square 
or enclosure. It was a two-storied building surrounded 
by verandahs, whither Dr. Sibree and his party repaired 
to pay a ceremonial visit to the Governor, who received 
them with much courtesy and formality. 

Time was devoted to exploring the neighbourhood, 
which appeared to be extremely fertile and very rich 

207 



208 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

in cattle. Every village of the Sihanaka has near its 
entrance a group of two or three tall straight trunks of 
trees fixed in the ground, varying from thirty to fifty 
feet in height ; the tops of these have the appearance of an 
enormous pair of horns, for the fork of a tree is fixed to 
the pole, and each branch is sharpened to a fine point. 
Besides these, there are generally half a dozen lower 
poles, on which are fixed a number of the skulls and horns 
of bullocks killed at the funeral of the people of whom 
these poles are the memorials. Several of the higher 
poles, Dr. Sibree noticed, had small tin trunks, generally 
painted oak colour, impaled on one point of the fork ; 
and in several instances baskets and mats were also 
placed on a railing of wood close to the poles. These 
articles were the property of the deceased, and may 
have been so placed to be of use to his spirit, or from an 
idea of pollution caused by death. The horn is a symbol 
of power and protection, and the army was termed " the 
horns of the kingdom . " 

Cattle rearing was carried on extensively, and refer- 
ences to the bull as an emblem of strength were frequent 
in public speeches. Bull-fighting was a favourite 
amusement with the sovereigns, and anciently the 
killing of an ox was regarded as a semi-religious obser- 
vance, and only the chief of a tribe was allowed to do 
this, as priest of his people. 

About the lake wild fowl are both numerous and varied, 
and the keeping of ducks and geese is an important 
occupation of the Sihanaka. Geese are greatly valued, 
and alive or killed are always presented as a mark of 
esteem to strangers. Guinea-fowls are also plentiful, 
generally in flocks of twenty to thirty. 

There used to be a curious custom formerly practised 
by the Sihanaka at the time of the circumcision. They 
used to choose one of the largest oxen to be found and 
sharpen his horns to a fine point ; after two or three 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 209 

days' continuous drinking, when they had got perfectly 
maddened with spirits and were ready for any foolhardy 
adventure, a party would rush out to attack this ox, but 
without any weapons. As the animal became infuriated, 
he, of course, defended himself by goring his enemies, 
many of whom he generally seriously hurt, and occasion- 
ally killed some outright, while the man who escaped 
without injury was considered as born under a lucky 
star, and was resorted to by numbers of people to give 
them charms to protect them from various kinds of 
calamity. 

The occupations of the Sihanaka are chiefly tending 
cattle, growing rice, fishing and making tbaha (rum). 
Almost every family, however poor, possesses a herd of 
cattle, and the day of cutting the ears of the young 
animals (to distinguish them from those of the Sovereign) 
is always a day of rejoicing or feeding. Very few milk 
their cattle, for they prefer a broth made from fish. 
When cultivating the ground for planting rice they do 
not dig it but make a number of low earthen banks for 
the purpose of retaining the water ; oxen are driven 
into the intervening spaces, and when they have been 
churned into mud the rice is sown broadcast without 
subsequent transplanting. When the matured crop is 
reaped it is heaped into stacks of considerable size, and 
when dry threshed out by men with sticks. The grain 
is not stored in pits but in an enormous kind of basket 
or round enclosure, made of papyrus plaited together 
from twenty to thirty feet in diameter. These are in 
the fields and roofed over. Rice being so plentiful, it is 
not measured but is reckoned by the number of these 
volordry, of which the richer Sihanaka have seven or 
eight or more. 

Fishing is extensively carried on by both men and 
women, the men angling for eels, the women dredging 
for small fish with a kind of basket or sieve. The fish 



210 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

are dried in the sun and sold in large quantities in the 
markets. Until a few years ago very little coin was used, 
all sales being done by barter. There is a great deal of 
rum made in this locality and its manufacture is the 
work of poor old men and women, and formerly of 
slaves. In every house it is to be found, for they think 
it shows a want of respect to visitors if they have not 
plenty of tbaka to give them. 

Travelling in this part of the country was not at all 
pleasant ; it consisted of wading through water or 
floundering through bog. They reached the town of 
Ambohitsara, situated quite in the swamp, raised only 
a few inches above the level, and surrounded by water, 
most of it stagnant. The natives were anxious for them 
to spend the night there, but as they did not consider 
the attractions great enough they determined to cross 
the Lake Alaotra the same day. This lake is the largest 
in Madagascar, and is about twenty-five miles long by 
four or five in average breadth. They reached the 
shore and waited for canoes but none appeared, and at 
last, tired of waiting, they retraced their steps to the 
village. They were courteously received, but Dr. 
Sibree confesses that these courtesies were somewhat 
ungraciously accepted, for he saw that the natives had 
determined that the party should partake of their 
hospitality and had adopted an effective policy of 
passive resistance to attain their end. 

However, the night was not uncomfortably passed, 
and next day they crossed the lake in a dozen large 
canoes, thirty or forty feet long and three or four feet 
wide, hollowed out of a single tree. Crocodiles are 
numerous in this lake and are of a different species from 
that inhabiting all other rivers in Madagascar, and are 
identical with fossil remains of those existing in pre- 
historic times. Tortoises are also plentiful, and there is 
a great variety of vegetable life. They reached the 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 211 

village of Marosalazana where formerly no person 
washed his clothes. These consisted of dark blue 
cotton smeared with castor oil, and as they considered 
that washing would spoil them, they remained unwashed. 
The young men in the evenings used to form into two 
parties, and had violent boxing matches, in which the 
women joined. The name of the village signifies 
" many poles," and Dr. Sibree saw a group of more than 
twenty poles holding ox skulls and horns. 

South of the lake in a place called Anororo lives a 
strange tribe of people who seem quite isolated, not 
only in their dwelling-place, but also in their barbarous 
habits, from the other Sihanaka, and who speak a 
distinctly different dialect. In the rainy season, when 
the water rises, it enters into the houses of these people ; 
they then form a raft of reeds, so that as the water 
rises, this raft rises with it. On this raft they make their 
hearths and beds, and there they live, rising and falling 
with the water until the dry weather lands them on 
earth again. 

Madagascar seems to be nature's museum of the 
fossilized remains of extinct animals. During recent 
excavations the skeletons of several examples of an 
extinct species of hippopotamus were discovered, the 
crania and tusks being in very perfect preservation. 
Until 1861 the antipathy of the natives against for- 
eigners prevented all scientific investigation, but since 
that time further researches and excavations in different 
localities have brought to light the bones and remains 
of shells of huge birds. They were evidently flightless, 
and were allied to the ostrich and the recently extinct 
dinornis of New Zealand. The generic name of aepyornis 
was given to these birds, of which several species have 
been discovered, ranging in size from that of a bustard 
to a bird exceeding an ostrich in height, and also in 
the massive character of the skeleton. The largest 



212 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

specimen found wpyornis ingens stood about ten feet in 
height. The egg of one of the species is the largest of all 
known eggs, being twelve inches and a quarter long 
by nine inches and three-eighths. It thus had a capacity 
equal to one hundred and forty-eight of those of the 
domestic fowl. From the marks of cuttings on the bones, 
by means of some sharp instrument, it seems probable 
that these huge birds were co-existent with man on 
the island, and were probably hunted off the face of 
the earth. Fossil gigantic tortoises and many other 
animals have also been discovered. 

It seems probable that Madagascar, when the first 
representatives of mankind visited it, was a country 
much more covered by lakes and marshes, and also by 
forest, than it is at present. In these waters, amid vast 
cane-brakes and swamps of papyrus and sedge, wallowed 
and snorted herds of hippopotami ; huge tortoises 
crawled on the low lands on their margins ; tall ostrich- 
like birds, some over ten feet high, and others no larger 
than bustards, stalked over the marshy valleys ; great 
rails hooted and croaked among the reeds, and clouds 
of large geese and other water-fowl flew screaming over 
the lakes ; on the sandbanks crocodiles lay by scores 
basking in the sun ; great ape-like lemurs climbed the 
trees and caught the birds ; troops of river-hogs swam 
the streams and dug up roots among the woods ; and 
herds of slender-legged zebu-oxen grazed on the open 
downs. These were the animals which the first wild men 
hunted with their palm-bark spears, and shot with 
their arrows tipped with burnt clay or stone. Further 
back, when Madagascar was probably not an island 
but a peninsula of Africa, one may dimly see vast reptile 
forms ; great slender-snouted gavials in the streams and 
lakes, giant sloths moving slowly along the branches 
of the trees, and huge dinosaurs, sixty to eighty feet 
long, crawling over the wooded plains and t^wng down 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 213 

whole trees with their powerful arms. Such is the picture 
of the life of Madagascar that science portrays for us. 

A journey southward to Betsileo was Dr. Sibree's next 
expedition. After the usual difficulties with the carriers 
the party started and in due course reached the Betsileo 
province. The characteristics of the land between 
Antananarivo and Fianarantsoa were the elevated 
tract of bare tableland, more than six thousand feet 
above the sea ; the cultivated valleys of the three or 
four chief rivers ; the green pleasant basins of Amb6sita 
and Ambohinamboarina ; the enormous rocks of Angavo 
and the belt of grey-lichened forest of Nandihizana. 
Three points, however, struck Dr. Sibree most forcibly 
in the province of Betsileo as being different from what 
he saw in Imerina : the bolder and grander scenery, 
and the stupendous masses of stone. Then there was the 
elaborate system of rice cultivation which appeared 
to be carried to the highest point of perfection in the 
wide valley south of Ambositra. Not only are the valleys 
and hollows terraced — the concave portions of the low 
hills, and lower slopes of the high hills — but the convex 
portions also are stepped up like a gigantic staircase for 
a great height, and how the water was conveyed to the 
higher levels Dr. Sibree could not discover, for many 
of these were terraced up to their highest point, the 
narrow lines of rice plot running round them in concen- 
tric circles, so that there was not a square yard of ground 
left unproductive. The third point was the elaborate 
carving on the tombs and houses. The upright stones 
placed near graves were not the rough undressed slabs 
common in Imerina, but were finely dressed and squared, 
and ornamented with carving. 

One of the bridges was most awkward to cross. The 
native engineer had made it in two spans, not, however, 
in a straight line, but forming almost a right angle 
with the other. It was constructed of massive balks of 



214 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

timber, but as these were not on a level, and some had 
slipped down three or four feet, the passage over was 
neither easy nor pleasant. Many of the bearers hesitated 
a good deal, as the bridge was sixteen to eighteen feet 
above the water which roared like a mill-race beneath. 

All about this neighbourhood were great numbers of 
ant-hills of a much larger size than usual. They are 
conical round mounds of a yard or so high, and are made 
by a white or yellowish ant. The queen is nearly an 
inch long, while her subjects are not half that size. A 
serpent is said to live in many of these nests, which 
is fattened up and eventually killed and eaten. 

There is a curious custom here, as in some other parts 
of the island, called fdto-drd, i.e. " bound by blood," 
by which persons of different tribes or nationalities 
become bound to one another in the closest possible 
fashion. The ceremony consists in taking a small 
quantity of blood from the breast or side of each con- 
tracting party ; this is mixed with other ingredients, 
stirred up with a spear-point, and than a little of the 
strange mixture is swallowed by each of them. Impreca- 
tions are uttered against those who shall be guilty of 
violating the solemn engagement thus entered into. 
Several Europeans whose interest it was to be on the 
best of terms with the natives, have made this covenant. 
Sometimes the blooa is taken from an ox. In this 
case a pinch of salt, a little soot, a leaden ball, and a 
gold bead were put into the blood, which was mixed 
with water. Sometimes pulverised flint, earth and 
gunpowder are added to the mixture. 

To the village of Irohitr6sa the path led through 
dense forest, entangled with luxuriant tropical vegeta- 
tion, rendering the journey most arduous. Deep streams 
had to be crossed by no other means than that of a 
single round pole, a foot or two under water, and fallen 
trees had to be climbed over or crept under, wet through 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 215 

with the dripping leaves on either hand and the mud and 
water underfoot. 

After the usual trouble with the bearers, who were 
afraid of a new and hitherto untried route, a start was 
made for the coast. The Matitanana, a fine, rapid and 
deep river, was reached. No canoes were available, 
so a bamboo raft, called a zahitra, was requisitioned. As 
a means of transport it is execrable. It consists of 
bamboos lashed together by bands of some tough 
creeper ; the bamboos continually slip out of place, and 
need trimming at every trip, and when loaded will 
carry only two men and two boxes, and even then it 
floats partly under water ; a split bamboo supplied 
the place of a paddle. All crossed safely but very wet. 

Money seems of very little use to these Tanala people ; 
beads are freely used as decorations by both sexes ; and 
their religion seems to consist chiefly of charms — charms 
against any and every kind of evil. Many of the men 
carry shields, which are made of a circular piece of 
wood covered with undressed bullock's hide ; a handle 
is cut in the wood at the back. The women carry a 
heavy knife or chopper in their belts, used for cutting 
up manioc or other roots. 

For the first time on this journey crocodiles were 
seen. They were basking in the sunshine, perfectly 
motionless ; very unpleasant-looking creatures, with 
serrated back and tail, and always attended by several 
large wading-birds, some white and others dark brown. 
These birds appear to perform some service for the 
reptiles, probably by picking off parasites. Near all 
villages of this part small spaces in the river were en- 
closed with stakes, so that the women and children 
coming to draw water could do so without fear of being 
seized by a crocodile, or swept off into the stream by 
his tail. 

Mention has been made of the poison ordeal. But 



216 MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 

among the Tanala tribes an ordeal of another kind was 
commonly employed to find out a guilty person, for 
the suspected one was taken to the bank of the Mati- 
tanana, or one of its tributaries, where crocodiles 
abound. The people having assembled, a man stood 
near the accused, and striking the water thrice addressed 
a long speech to the reptiles, adjuring them to punish 
the guilty, but to spare the innocent. The accused was 
then made to swim across the river and back again, and 
if he successfully accomplished this, he was considered 
innocent, and his accuser was fined four oxen. 

At the village of Vangaindrano a large Hova post, 
Dr. Sibree received a shock. Hitherto he had met with 
unvarying courtesy, but here all were made prisoners 
for two days. The Governor said he was acting under 
orders from Headquarters, and that they would not be 
allowed to proceed southward. If they were in truth 
his orders he carried them out in a harsh and arbitrary 
fashion. The reception at the next military post was 
quite the contrary. The party were met at the gate of 
the stockade by the Governor and a company of soldiers, 
and were escorted with all ceremony into the place in 
a pelting shower of rain. Next day a formal dinner was 
given, and Dr. Sibree describes it as the noisiest enter- 
tainment he ever attended, for everyone shouted from 
the Governor downwards. The menu may be interest- 
ing : it consisted of curry, goose, roast pork, pigeons 
and water-fowl, chicken cutlets and poached eggs, 
beef sausages, boiled tongue, sardines, pig's trotters, 
fried bananas, pancakes, manioc, dried bananas, and 
last, when the dinner appeared to be finished, haunches 
of roast beef ! Coffee wound up the feast. Then fol- 
lowed speeches and toasts with musical honours, in 
which the big drum took no small share. The old 
Governor was the soul of hospitality, for he insisted on 
filling the glasses so often, especially his own, that he 



MADAGASCAR : NATURE'S MUSEUM 217 

became somewhat incoherent, and Dr. Sibree was glad 
to find an opportunity for retiring, but not alone, for he 
was escorted to his own building by the whole party, 
followed by the big drum ! The leave-taking on the 
morrow was equally ceremonious ; toasts were drunk 
with musical honours, and the jovial old gentleman and 
his wives accompanied the party for an hour on their 
journey, followed, of course, by the band and the big 
drum. A halt was made at the rapid stream Manant- 
simba, where more toasts were drunk, and both parties 
took leave with mutual good feeling. 

After an arduous journey to the coast the route turned 
northward, and although each stage was full of interest, 
no incident of great moment occurred, and after an 
itinerary lasting eleven weeks. Dr. Sibree and his party 
reached Antananarivo safely, having travelled by 
palanquin, on foot, and in canoes, more than nine 
hundred miles, and crossed rivers thirty times on the 
journey. 




Madagascar Spider 



[The information contained in these chapters has 
been derived from Dr. James Sibree's book, A Naturalist 
in Madagascar, by kind permission of the author.] 




NEW GUINEA 

DUTCH SECTIOilf 



CHAPTER XVII 

A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

New Guinea has been the object of numerous expeditions 
of research, but as a whole still offers greater oppor- 
tunities for the explorer, collector and anthropologist 
than any other portion of the globe, and yet many years 
must elapse before sufficient knowledge of the country 
can be accumulated even to construct a sketch-map of its 
entire surface, to say nothing of a complete scientific 
examination of its mammals, birds, reptiles, insects and 
plants, or a study of the many savage tribes which 
inhabit the highlands and the plains. The chief reasons 
for this are its remote situation from the civilised world, 
its impenetrable forests, its rugged ranges and endless 
swamps, its rains and fevers, and lastly its hostile and 
treacherous inhabitants. 

It can be easily understood, therefore, why this 
country was selected as a virgin land in which to work 
when the British Ornithologists' Union desired to com- 
memorate their jubilee by sending an expedition into 
a country hitherto unexplored. The object was to 
explore that unknown country to the east of Fak-Fak, 
and to the west of Lorentz's Nord River. Little or 
nothing was known of this great tract of country ; it 
had remained a land of mystery, impenetrable as when 
Carstensz had first seen it three hundred years before. 

Without entering into the particulars of the prepara- 
tions for the expedition it is sufficient to mention that of 
the European members Mr. Walter Goodfellow was 
selected as leader, and Captain Rawling (the late 

219 



220 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

Brigadier-General Rawling), to whom we are indebted 
for these particulars, assisted by Dr. E. Marshall, were 
appointed surveyors and cartographers. Through Sir 
E. Grey permission had been obtained from the Dutch 
Government for the expedition to land on the south 
coast of Dutch New Guinea any date after January 1st, 
1910. This section had been chosen because its geogra- 
phy, fauna and flora were comparatively unknown. 
A company of Gurkhas and an escort of forty Javanese 
troops were to accompany the expedition for purposes 
of protection, while sixty convicts were to act as carriers. 
The Nias, laden to her Plimsoll line with stores and 
passengers, left Soerabaia, the western port of Java, for 
the mouth of the Mimika river, but so confused and 
confusing is the coast of New Guinea that she overshot 
the mark, and the aid of a native, who turned out to be 
the chief of the village of Nime, was invoked, and anchor 
was dropped two miles from the mouth of the river. 
Next morning search was made for a suitable site for a 
camp. Mangrove trees covered the banks, their bare 
roots projecting in a tangled mass from a sea of slimy 
mud, over which no man could move. This growth 
gradually gave place to vegetation requiring more solid 
foundation, beneath which scrub jungle appeared, 
becoming more and more dense the further they 
advanced. Up beautiful stretches of the gently winding 
river they passed with dank and gloomy creeks opening 
out on either hand. Slimy, evil-smelling mud covered 
the land, evidence of the inundation which took place 
at every tide ; everywhere roamed countless numbers 
of crabs, large and small, together with a species of 
climbing fish which, with swift strokes of its tail and 
fins, sought cover amidst the roots, or, if on a branch, 
flopped noisily into the water. Overhead passed white 
cockatoos screaming with fear, their yellow crests dis- 
tended ; egrets, tree-ducks, pigeons, flocks of beautiful 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 221 

but noisy parrots and lories, and innumerable other 
varieties of bird life. On the bank basked an alligator, 
whilst water-snakes, making for the nearest cover, now 
and again rippled the glassy surface of the water. This 
highway of the island teemed with animal life, startled 
into activity by the unwonted apparition of a steam- 
launch. 

Three miles from the mouth the river divided into 
the Mimika, flowing from the north, and the Watuka 
from the west. At this point the Mimika had shrunk 
to about one hundred yards in breadth, the banks 
slimy with mud and covered to the water's edge with a 
tangled mass of creepers and cacti. Not a soul was to 
be seen ; the river seemed as deserted as the grave. 
This was due either to fear, or more probably had been 
arranged by the savages in order to afford a more striking 
welcome, for, as the launch suddenly rounded a bend in 
the river, a wild yell from the banks burst upon the ear, 
immediately followed by the appearance of a dozen 
well-filled canoes. Without awaiting a closer approach 
every man cast himself backward into the river, only 
to scramble on board again and repeat the performance. 
Escorted by the canoes the launch turned into a straight 
stretch of water at the far end of which the coco-nut 
palms of a village could be distinguished, the rising 
smoke showing where the huts lay. This was Wakatimi, 
near which place Goodfellow had hoped to find a con- 
venient place for the base camp. 

The excitement was intense. Men, women and chil- 
dren poured down to the banks of the river ; the women 
cast themselves into the mud, rolling over and over, 
and plastering themselves from head to foot, while the 
men and boys preferred the cleaner operation of throwing 
themselves backwards into the water. The women, now 
hardly to be recognised as human beings, but delirious 
with joy and excitement, started an inartistic dance, 



222 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

going down on hands and feet and wriggling their 
bodies from side to side. But directly the white men 
set foot on land, all dived like a lot of rabbits into their 
huts, showing nothing but frizzy heads and gleaming 
eyes. 

The village consisted of two long rows of huts, unlike 
those in other parts of New Guinea, not erected on piles, 
and having no partitions, so that they were really 
communal dwellings, the only mark of privacy being 
that each family possessed its own doorway. There was 
no furniture except an occasional wood pillow, which 
from its uncomfortable appearance might be safely 
calculated to banish sleep. Each family had its own 
hearth, and the place was full of smoke. The floor 
was littered with babies, dogs, dishes, bags, bows and 
arrows, etc., while stacked up near the door were spears 
and stone axes within handy reach should occasion 
require. 

Opposite the village, and unaffected by it, a likely 
site presented itself; it was a peninsula formed by a 
fold in the river ; it was within easy reach, by launch, 
of relief ships, and possessed possibilities for effective 
sanitation. Here Goodfellow decided to build a base 
camp. Cramer, the member of the expedition to whose 
lot fell the erecting of the building, had an unpleasant 
task, for time after time his railings were borne to the 
ground by the natives, not through mischief or malice, 
but simply out of a pure desire to see all that was going 
on. Later on, however, when the novelty had worn off, 
sulkiness and insolence took the place of curiosity, but 
after a few examples had been made of the offenders, 
matters improved. 

The inhabitants of the Mimika district occupy four 
zones, viz., the coast tribes ; north of this is a sparsely 
tenanted strip of country ; then north of this are the 
up-river natives ; and still further north, occupying 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 223 

the lower foothills of the main central range of mountains, 
dwell the small men, or pygmies, called by the plainsmen 
Tapiros. For some reason there is constant enmity 
between the coast and up-river tribes, though they are 
of the same stock and live on the same river. The coast 
tribes are well developed both in stature and girth, 
which is extraordinary when one takes into considera- 
tion their natural surroundings and slothful life. They 
are almost coal black, but albinos are sometimes met 
with, and very repulsive they are in appearance. 
The hair of the Papuan, if left to itself, grows into a 
tremendous mop, but it is cut short and on gala days 
decorated with the feathers of the bird of paradise. 
The w^omen adorn themselves very little, and with the 
exception of a few beads, wear nothing but a loin-cloth, 
made from the bark of a tree, and beaten until quite 
pliable. 

These savages rush to arms on the slightest provoca- 
tion ; in a minute a village may be in a violent uproar, 
with spears whizzing through the air and stone axes 
whirling madly about. The cause of this is generally 
beer-drinking. The headman of Wakatimi, a pleasant 
enough creature when sober, invariably wanted to fight 
when under the influence of drink, and usually chose 
his wife as the object upon which to work off his feelings. 
Returning one day from a carouse, he seized his bow and 
arrows and used his wife as a target. But the trees of 
the village were in the way, so taking to his canoe, he 
pushed off into the open stream and started his practice 
afresh. But the lurching of the canoe and his muddled 
brain made his shooting poor, and his wife stood on the 
bank, and dared him to do his worst. Having made a 
fine show and exhausted his arrows he returned to the 
shore. Now was the wife's turn. She tore the bow from 
his hand and broke it to splinters over his head and 
shoulders, then bore him off to their hut, a beaten and 



224 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

cowed man, using a wealth of vituperation that would 
have excited the admiration of Billingsgate. 

Children are kindly treated, but the lot of the wife is 
hard. Little ground is cultivated, but nature has been 
lavish with the sago-palm ; the jungle and river produce 
most of the food. Meat is much appreciated and 
eagerly sought after, pig being considered the daintiest 
morsel, then wallaby, cus-cus, and cassowary. Other 
articles of food are small alligators, tortoises, iguanas, 
snakes, prawns, and the white grubs found in the decay- 
ing trunks of the sago-palms. When a dead palm 
floating down the river is hauled on shore all the inhabi- 
tants crowd to the feast, and the sight of wriggling grubs, 
the size of one's little finger, being popped into eager 
mouths, is not very edifying. So rich is the soil that the 
labour required is not to raise the crop but to keep down 
the weeds. But such labour is not expended, for the 
native is too indolent. 

Cannibalism is common in many parts of the island, 
though it does not seem to be practised by the Mimika 
Papuans. A story is told, and seems to be confirmed, of 
three hundred shipwrecked Chinese who were marooned 
on an island and fattened for the table. They were 
taken off two or three at a time and boiled in a hot 
spring. When the natives were tired of Chinese flesh, 
they hawked the remainder round the coast. Another 
story is told of a woman who dug up her recently 
deceased husband to feed a friend. This act caused 
much indignation at the time, not so much because 
it was considered wrong to eat the flesh when exhumed, 
but because the men of the tribe disliked the idea of 
being devoured by their own wives. 

For the purpose of exploring the upper reaches of 
the river a fleet of ten canoes was obtained by barter 
before the end of the first week. Each canoe, hollowed 
out from a single tree trunk, is from fifty to sixty feet 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 225 

long. Suitable trees are only to be found in the recesses 
of the forest ; and when one considers that the only 
instrument used in felling and shaping the tree is a 
very inadequate stone axe, the labour must be enormous. 
The finer work is done with the sharp edge of a shell or a 
piece of iron, probably obtained from the coast. At 
first canoes were cheap, but as the demand was continu- 
ous prices rose until Wakatimi was sold out, and outlying 
regions entered the market. The price at first was a 
knife and a handkerchief for each canoe, but later on 
the offer of two axes was rejected. 

The first expedition was hardly a success, as it lasted 
only two days and extended only six miles up river. 
Beyond this point the native paddlers absolutely refused 
to go, in spite of liberal offers of payment. Meantime a 
consignment of one hundred coolies had arrived from 
Amboina, one of the smaller islands of the Moluccas, 
and a miserable crew they were. All the maimed, halt, 
and blind seemed to have been selected for an expedition 
demanding physical fitness in a high degree. They were 
clad in black frock-coats, bowler hats, and brilliantly 
coloured sarongs (a loose skirt). They were lined up, 
examined, and half of them immediately shipped back 
home. After a time these coolies, who at first evinced a 
rooted dislike to the dug-outs, became quite proficient 
paddlers. 

The Mimika is a deceptive river ; it is merely a 
tributary of the Watuka, and the size of its mouth gives 
an appearance of importance which has deceived many 
travellers. It doubles on itself in an exasperating 
fashion, and the flow of water is most irregular — one 
day a swirling torrent, the next a mere trickle. In the 
first case poling is impossible and paddling almost so ; 
in the second, the canoe has to be hauled along by sheer 
strength, over mud and gravel, over or under trunks 
of trees and masses of tangled foliage. During an 



226 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

inundation all the surrounding country is under water, 
nor does a yard of land show itself on which to camp. 

Upon the dank and mud-covered banks flourishes the 
most dense and luxuriant vegetation imaginable, con- 
taining specimens of almost every tree and shrub to be 
found in the tropics, all bound into a tangled im- 
penetrable mass by innumerable rattans and creepers. 
The effect of this sombre bank of dark green, relieved 
only occasionally by a blaze of some brilliant flower, 
is anything but an inducement to the traveller to 
explore the swampy land below and beyond. Alligators 
are to be seen, and some of them attain to a great size, 
but they do not appear to be aggressive ; even children 
bathers have no fear of them. Iguanas, large and 
hideous, dart from cover to cover; turtles flop lazily 
from the mud into the water, while, further on, is seen 
a poisonous water-snake wriggling its way along the 
surface of the stream to the safe shade of the bank. 
Although the temptation to strike these reptiles with a 
paddle is great, it is well to leave them alone when they 
are swimming, for when struck they make straight for 
the canoe, and with a particularly rapid rush try to 
clamber up the sides. 

Crown pigeons (goura) may be seen in pairs, beautiful 
birds, and excellent eating ; kingfishers flash past, and 
noisy hornbills balance themselves overhead. During 
the mating season it is the habit of the male bird to 
close up the opening of the nest with mud, leaving only 
a small aperture through which he passes food to his 
mate who is sitting on her eggs. The whirring clouds of 
lories and chattering parrots, the shrill cries of the gor- 
geous birds of paradise, and the twitterings of endless 
other species of birds, lend a charm to water travel 
which would otherwise be insupportable in its monotony. 

Pig, brown and black, are to be found in a wild state 
throughout the country, and the ostrich-like cassowary. 



J 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 227 

Sometimes a tree will be seen laden with flying foxes, 
hanging head downwards, and the females with their 
young fixed firmly to their breast ; horrid, unnatural- 
looking creatures, with their slow, heavy flight, claws, 
and beady eyes. Then there is the wallaby, a small 
prototype of the kangaroo, and the vicious cus-cus, 
with jaws like steel and claws like fish-hooks. 

Mosquitoes hang in clouds over the dark and stagnant 
pools, but it is some relief to know that the anopheles, 
or carrier of the malarial germ, is in the minority, 
otherwise life would be insupportable. Leeches dangle 
from every leaf and branch. So insidious is the attack 
of these hateful creatures, that it is only a stream of 
blood welling through the clothing which warns the 
traveller of the presence of this pest. The bites often 
degenerate into bad sores if not attended to at once. 

Worst of all these insect plagues, however, are loath- 
some bluebottles which exist in millions, defiling any 
food which may be exposed. Ticks are plentiful, but a 
particularly obnoxious creature is a small caterpillar 
which drops on one and exudes a pungent odour of 
formalin. Large and voracious crickets abound, also 
minute bees which crawl in myriads over one's skin 
when heated after exercise. 

Snakes are unpleasantly numerous, some of them 
deadly ; there are also pythons, but these do not reach 
the size of those of Borneo. The natives show extra- 
ordinary fearlessness in catching the poisonous speci- 
mens, grasping them behind the head before they have 
time to strike, severing the head from the body with a 
split piece of cane, and popping the body into their bags 
for the evening meal. 

At one place a surprise awaited the canoe party, for a 
canoe full of men suddenly rounded a bend of the river ; 
the men leaped out on the bank, and a band of women, 
whose sole coverings were girdles of leaves, burst 



228 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

into view from the forest and raced towards them over 
the mud flat, uttering weird and discordant cries. 
Choosing the muddiest spot, they flung themselves 
headlong into the filth, and, still yelling, rolled over and 
over smearing face and hair with slime. Then they fell 
a-dancing, but just as they were reaching the highest 
pitch of excitement a signal from the men brought them 
to a dead stop. Complete silence ensued, and then all, 
men and women, standing quite still, placed their hands 
over their eyes and burst into tears. One moment there 
would be a succession of gasping sobs, to be followed by 
a series of ear-piercing shrieks, the bodily and mental 
exertion being so great as to cause the tears to pour 
down their cheeks, and great beads of perspiration to 
stand out on their bodies. Amazed at such heart- 
rending grief the Europeans endeavoured to allay their 
anguish ; but they might as well have tried to soothe a 
whirlwind, for their grief seemed to gain vigour. Then 
suddenly the demonstration ceased; without a word of 
explanation, without even troubling to wipe the tears 
from their cheeks, they seized their poles and started 
their canoe afresh, as peaceful and unconcerned as if 
what they had just been doing was the most natural and 
ordinary thing possible. The women washed themselves, 
replaced the leaves by girdles of bark cloth, and once 
more became rational beings.* 

Parimau, a village of some twenty-five huts, used to 
be the most important place on the upper reaches of the 
Mimika, but an inundation swept away not only the 
village but also the land on which it stood. Here a 
temporary camp was made and substantial huts erected. 
Numerous visitors arrived from neighbouring villages 
to see the European curiosities, and were hospitably 
received by their native hosts. But soon the village 

* Weeping, as a form of welcome, is practised in other parts of the 
world. 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 229 

became congested and brawls arose, and blood was 
freely shed. The usual weapon was the stone club, made 
out of coral, or limestone rock, and with these the most 
violent blows were given and received, though every care 
was taken not to strike the head. During these brawls 
a most appalling din was kept up, both spectators and 
combatants yelling out abuse and defiance at the top 
of their voices. When a single fight took place, each 
gave and received in turn a violent blow on the back 
with the club until one or other had had enough. Should 
an unfortunate woman receive a badly aimed blow 
she was allowed to lie where she fell until she was 
sufficiently recovered to crawl to her hut. 

Wives are very badly treated by both up and down- 
river natives. Rawling witnessed a deliberate attempt 
to drown a young wife by her husband and his elder 
wife. A fishing net was thrown over her, and the unholy 
couple held the ends down beneath the water, and it was 
only the threat to shoot them that saved the young 
wife from certain death. There was no attempt at 
interference by any of the other villagers. 

When it was explained to the natives that it was 
desired to penetrate into the hills, guides readily offered 
themselves. Accompanied by two Gurkhas and a dozen 
Papuans, Rawling set out along an abominable track 
that was so obstructed with cacti that the greater part 
of the day was spent in cutting a way through the four 
miles of forest that lay between them and the first large 
river encountered. It is difficult to realize the density 
of the forest growth. The vegetation, through which 
only the scantiest glimpses of the sky can be obtained, 
appears to form, as it were, two great horizontal strata. 
The first comprises the giant trees whose topmost boughs 
are one hundred and fifty feet or more above the ground ; 
the other, the bushes, shrubs and trees of lesser growth, 
which never attain a greater height than thirty to forty 



230 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

feet. Such is the richness of the soil that not one square 
foot remains untenanted, and the never-ending struggle 
to reach upwards towards the longed-for light goes on 
silently and relentlessly. Creepers and parasites in 
endless variety cling to every stem, slowly but surely 
throttling their hosts. From tree to tree their tentacles 
stretch out, seizing on to the first projecting branch and 
limb, and forming such a close and tangled mass that 
the dead and dying giants of the forest are prevented 
from falling to the ground. All the well-known devices 
for determining direction are set at naught by this all 
but impenetrable mass of vegetation. 

At length the stony bed of the River Kapare was 
reached, from which a grand view of the mountains 
were obtained. The guides would go no further, so camp 
was pitched, fish were caught, and then to sleep. 
An hour later Rawling was awakened by a rush of feet 
and was just in time to see the last of the Papuans 
disappearing into the bush. Fearing an attack and 
judging his present position to be too close to the jungle, 
he and his Gurkhas moved into a more open one in the 
bed of the river, and there waited. An hour elapsed 
but nothing happened, than a hail reached his ear to 
which he replied. He approached nearer the spot and 
discovered one of his Papuans, who was apparently 
discussing some grievance very volubly ; to this 
Rawling replied with very voluble abuse ; and thus, 
carrying on their mutual unintelligible conversation, 
they reached their former camp. Rawling can give no 
reason for the stampede, but thinks the men were over- 
come by an unreasoning and contagious superstitious 
fear. 

The Papuans refused to go further up-stream, so 
Rawling took what observations he could of precipitous 
mountains with knife-edged ridges covered with the 
densest vegetation, of deep gorges, and of an immense 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 231 

precipice — a sheer perpendicular wall of rock, bare of 
vegetation and black in colour, and then returned to 
Parimau. It was then decided to explore the Kapare, 
and the first night was spent at Obota, a village of three 
hundred inhabitants, some distance west of Wakatimi. 
The paddlers obtained from this village proved capital 
boatmen, and pleasant companions. For some distance 
progress was eminently satisfactory, and then occurred 
an impassable barrier of shoals and rapids which 
effectually put a stop to any further advance. So the 
party dejectedly made its way back to Wakatimi. 

Rawling had not accompanied this expedition by 
boat, but had camped with his Gurkhas five miles further 
up the river than the limit of the last expedition, making 
preparations for the arrival of the boat party. No boat 
arrived, as we have seen, and provisions began to run 
low. The only birds they could bag were hornbills, 
which are, apparently, very tough, and consist of little 
more than beak and neck. A party of Papuan hunters 
appeared on the scene, but no blandishments would 
induce them to act as carriers to a district more alive 
with game, so Rawling and his Gurkhas were compelled 
to adopt the role of carriers themselves. 

They plodded on in uncomfortable silence for some 
time along the river-bed, when with a loud yell one of the 
Papuans dashed past Rawling, followed by the others. 
Rawling' s first thought was that of attack, then visions 
of pork floated before his eyes, and dropping his load 
and girding up his loins he pounded along in the rear. 
Being left behind he cast about for the spoor of a pig 
but saw only human foot-prints. As man-hunting was 
not in his programme he sat down to await the turn of 
events. Before many minutes had passed the excited 
voices of the men could be heard as they drew near, 
and then from the forest there emerged a confused mass 
of savages, in the centre of which, held firmly by the 



232 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

arms and driven forward by sundry proddings behind, 
were two small naked men, differing in appearance from 
any he had hitherto seen. Although outnumbered they 
put up a vigorous resistance that engaged the attention 
of all their big-framed brethren. 

When the party reached the place where Rawling 
stood the captives were released, now cowed by fear 
and exhaustion, with their eyes fixed on the ground, 
anticipating the worst. They had been deprived of their 
bows and arrows, their grass helmets, and their bags of 
precious odds and ends, all of which were being dis- 
tributed piece by piece. These were all restored with 
the addition of a few beads, which brought a flickering 
smile to their faces. The men were of good proportions, 
without any signs of dwarfishness or deformity. Their 
small size was very noticeable when standing beside the 
Parimau men, who averaged 5 ft. 6| in., while they barely 
reached 4 ft. 7 in. They proved to be members of a 
mountain tribe known as Tapiro, living on the lower 
slopes of the mountains, where their villages and planta- 
tions lay. Their dress consisted of a grass helmet, with 
upright rims, and a projection at the crown into which 
a bird of paradise plume could be inserted. Over one 
shoulder was suspended a string bag containing a collec- 
tion of fishing tackle and fire-sticks. As it was to the 
advantage of the expedition to be on good terms with 
these people if they wished to penetrate into the moun- 
tains, they were given a few more trifles and allowed to 
depart. The elder of the two immediately disappeared 
into the jungle, but the other remained for two days, 
then he, too, went. He proved to be very intelligent, and 
showed the method by which they lit their fires. 

Two implements were required — a stick of hard wood 
and a length of split rattan. A cleft was made in the 
stick in which a stone was forced to keep the sides 
apart. Then, having placed one end of the stick beneath 



I 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 283 

his foot and the other over a bunch of dried leaves, he 
passed the rattan rope beneath the cleft stick, and 
grasping it with his hands, worked it rapidly backwards 
and forwards till the friction engendered by the rattan 
against the sharp edge of the stick produced ignition. 
The smouldering leaves were then blown into a flame. 
Thinking the simplicity of a common match would 
please him, a box was offered to him, but he merely 
gave a gasp of astonishment and a grunt of disapproval, 
and refused the present. 

The Papuans had by now abandoned their stubborn 
mood and offered to carry the baggage to a spot three 
miles up-stream, from which point a few more miles of 
the river were explored. When they learnt of Rawling's 
intention to enter the hills they wished to accompany 
him, and to this he consented. On their way along the 
river bed two more pygmies were captured after a hard 
tussle against overwhelming odds. These, as in the 
case of the others, were well treated but compelled to 
follow the party. Across the boundary line between the 
land of the pygmies and that of the plainsmen, the 
Papuans refused to go, so Rawling was left with two 
Gurkhas to proceed alone. But the path was so difficult 
and intricate that Rawling was compelled to retrace his 
steps to the point where the pygmies had been captured. 
A death-like stillness prevailed ; all had departed, big 
and small. Repeated attempts were made to reach 
the home of the pygmies but each failed, and, dis- 
appointed, Rawling returned to camp. 

A final attempt, thanks to the persistence of a Gurkha, 
ended in success. He acted as guide or pioneer and 
finally brought them to a clearing. Their movements had 
been noted, and in response to repeated yodelling a 
small crowd of eight pygmies soon gathered. They were 
truculent and unsociable, and refused all overtures, 
with bows and arrows ready for instant use. The 



234 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

clearing was cultivated with a mixed crop of taro and 
sweet potato, but there were no signs of dwelling- 
places. All attempts to discover the regular route to the 
plains failed ; the pygmies stubbornly refused to 
succumb even to the fascinations of a piece of red 
cloth, so Rawling was compelled to retire by the same 
path by which he had come, for the time being satisfied 
with what he had learnt, and returned to Parimau. 

The village had by now become completely trans- 
formed, for the inhabitants, fired by the example of 
the invaders, had worked such improvements both in 
architecture and sanitation that the place was unrecog- 
nisable. The European camp, too, had been enlarged, 
and a farm-yard established, stocked chiefly with 
cassowaries and pigs. Dogs are a valuable asset all over 
New Guinea on account of their keenness and hunting 
instincts. They are about the size of an Irish terrier, 
thin, lank, and covered with mange. They do not bark 
but give vent to a dismal howl. But valuable as they 
are they are cruelly treated. Women are of no account ; 
they are merely drudges, and the accessories to a man's 
comfort. No ceremonies attend a birth, death, or funeral ; 
youth rapidly develops into maturity and forty-five is 
old age. There is no knowledge of medicine, and the sick 
are uncared for. A widow's " weeds " consist of a cloak 
and skirt of plaited grass together with a great poke 
bonnet which stands out from ten to twelve inches 
from the face. The widower makes no outward expres- 
sion of his grief. Corpses are exposed on trestles or 
buried. In the former case decomposition soon sets in, 
leaving the bones only. These are hung in a grass bag 
from the rafters of the hut. The skull, however, is 
the only part deemed of great importance. Wishing to 
secure one for scientific purposes, Rawling, unwilling 
to offend the tender susceptibilities of the inhabitants, 
entered into private and secret negotiations with a 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 235 

friendly native. To his dismay the man went into the 
open and yelled out at the top of his voice that the 
white men were collecting skulls. No hostile demonstra- 
tion followed, but at least a dozen men raced to the 
camp, each with a skull tucked under his arm, eager to 
obtain trade goods without the nuisance of working for 
them. 

The men possess courage amounting to foolhardiness ; 
rapids, crocodiles or snakes possess no fears for them, 
but an electric torch filled them with terror. The 
endurance of physical pain is great, as was shown 
by the terrific thumps they received in their single 
combats. 

So far as mammals were concerned the results of 
collecting were disappointing, but the birds on the other 
hand are of absorbing interest, and in no other part of 
the world can so many species be found, so varied in 
plumage and so striking in their peculiarities, and ten 
new species were discovered. There is a riot of colour 
in the birds but a dull monotony in the vegetation. 

A fresh consignment of coolies now arrived, much 
superior to the last. They set to work with a will, and 
soon became quite proficient in their various duties, 
especially paddling. 

Trade goods varied in favour with the natives ; Jew's 
harps were scorned, or used as ear decorations by a 
few ; looking-glasses were only of ephemeral interest ; 
beads became a drug in the market ; axe heads and 
knives were in favour ; but a man does not want to 
accumulate a store of axes or knives, and if he has 
attained his heart's desire, why should he work for 
more. So reasoned the native mind. Empty tins, 
especially kerosene, jam-jars and bottles were good 
trade articles. Salt is useless, as the natives dislike it. 
But cloth, whatever the condition, quality or colour, is 
the ne plus ultra of the native, and he who possesses a 



286 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

disreputable garment which was once a waistcoat, is a 
proud and happy man. 

Fights and festivals, more often the former, varied 
the monotony at Parimau. One morning the camp was 
awakened by a terrific din, and Rawling was in time to 
see a very interesting melee in active progress. The 
chief and most interested combatants were engaged 
in the centre of an excited crowd, but now and then an 
onlooker, not to be out of the fun, would join in and 
make an indiscriminate attack, while a small band 
carved its way through all the fighters, then on reaching 
the other side carved its way back. When order was 
restored it was discovered that a woman was the founda- 
tion of the row. She had evidently escaped to Ibo, a 
neighbouring village on the Wakura river, so a council 
was called and it was decided to attack the Ibo people 
next morning. Warlike implements were searched out 
and trade knives ostentatiously sharpened. Next 
morning a long line of warriors set out, but the warlike 
ardour of many had cooled, and excuses were found for 
returning to the village. At length the leaders, finding 
that their following was gradually approaching the 
vanishing point, discussed the question and decided 
that it was not worth while attacking the Ibo people, 
and returned home. The day following there was an 
invasion by the Ibo people into Parimau, withal a 
peaceful one. They were received with open arms and 
treated as old and trusted friends, especially as they had 
brought plenty of provisions. These were followed by an 
influx of other visitors until the accommodation was 
strained to breaking point. An air of suppressed 
excitement pervaded all, and it was evident that some- 
thing unusual was in the wind. For two days the noise 
of drumming and howling was incessant. 

Accepting an invitation, Rawling and the others took 
up a commanding position. Two boars were driven 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 237 

into the jungle by weeping women, and thence by a 
hidden path into one of the huts. The men formed 
themselves into a three-sided square, an orchestra of 
drums forming the fourth. Behind these were grouped 
the women and children. The square advanced, being 
harangued at intervals by the headman of the village, 
who terminated by discharging two arrows over the 
tree tops, which seemed to give universal satisfaction. 
This had taken place on the bank of the river, but now 
a move was made into the village, where Rawling and 
Marshall were given an honoured place on a platform 
specially erected for them. After a pause the men, 
furnished with large rattan nooses, placed themselves 
on either side of the hut in which the boars were con- 
fined, and at a given signal the animals were driven 
forth, successfully overpowered and trussed. With 
a man seated astride each animal, and to the accompani- 
ment of loud wails from the women, they were lifted 
shoulder high, carried to the place of slaughter and 
lashed to the platform. 

The executioners rained a hail of blows on the animals, 
whose squeals were drowned by the yells of the people. 
Then for five minutes the audience gave itself up to 
unrestrained wailing and gnashing of teeth ; the women 
hugging and clasping the carcases in their unnatural 
grief, whilst the air rang with shrieks, and tears coursed 
down every cheek. A three-year-old child was then 
brought out, painted from head to foot a bright red, 
and carried to the now empty platform. It looked as 
if human sacrifice were to be included in the proceedings. 
But this was not so, for he was merely carried round the 
platform shoulder high. It was only a ceremony of 
initiation. 

The dead pigs were then laid side by side in the village 
square and each man leaped over them, giving them a 
blow with his heavy club in passing. Twice was this 



238 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

repeated and then, seizing the carcases, the whole 
party jumped into the river. A general washing and 
cleaning up followed, after which the pigs were solemnly 
carried to the shore. After more speeches the carcases 
were cut up and distributed. The remainder of the day 
was given up to jollification and horseplay, in which the 
women had a particularly good time of it ; for once they 
had the right to beat the men to their heart's content, 
and pay off old scores. The men were not allowed to 
retaliate, and could only take refuge in the jungle or 
deeper pools of the river. 

The proceedings, however, terminated unpleasantly, 
for at this point a canoe rounded a bend in the river 
bringing the news that a convoy attached to the expedi- 
tion had been stopped and robbed, presumably by 
Parimau men. The whole village was seized with panic, 
and in five minutes all the people had cleared into the 
forest. The culprits, however, gave themselves up ; a 
few articles were recovered, and after a stern word of 
advice as to what would happen in the way of reprisals 
should anything similar occur, the matter was closed. 

There seemed to be little, if any, stealing among the 
Papuans themselves ; they seemed to take a pride in 
deceiving one by deliberate lying, and when detected 
showed more amusement than shame. What they 
lacked in skill they made up for in cunning. As there was 
no system of runners, it was convenient to send messages 
written on pieces of paper. This to the native was 
incomprehensible ; still, if one piece of paper represented 
in value an axe head, surely another similar piece 
should be equally valuable. So when pay-day arrived 
and the workers lined up to receive their wages in trade 
goods on presenting their checks, idlers and loafers 
would join the queue armed with Lemco labels or odd 
pieces of wrapping, and great was their indignation 
when their naive efforts at duphcity were received with 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 239 

shouts of laughter. An attempt to imitate a billet-doux 
twisted in a certain shape, but of course containing no 
message, met with the same fate. After this failure 
nothing more was attempted in the same line — it 
looked so simple, and yet never bore fruit. 

At Parimau the acquisition of wealth appeared to 
have an ameliorating effect on the inhabitants ; but at 
Wakatimi, on the contrary, wealth produced sloth and 
idleness, and consequently more time and opportunity 
to indulge in drunken orgies. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

Transport difficulties proved a great obstacle to the 
intention to penetrate the country as far as the moun- 
tains ; the steam-launch lent by one of the relief vessels 
was not powerful enough to stem the current when 
towing a string of loaded canoes, so Goodfellow decided 
to cross to Dobo and try to buy a motor-launch from the 
pearl-fishers. Meantime search was made for a more 
navigable river than the Mimika, but still keeping 
Wakatimi as a base. How greatly changed for the better 
had this camp become. The position certainly was bad, 
as it was almost level with the water, and liable to 
inundations, but it was the best that could be found 
in the vicinity of the river. 

Explorations in the Dreadnought, a large roomy dug- 
out with a very comfortable beam, brought them to 
Nim6, a large village in a land-locked bay on the coast. 
Their appearance caused great consternation, and the 
inhabitants took to their heels into the jungle, but soon 
returned, the men having bunches of leaves in their 
armlets, and the women casting handfuls of sand, or 
flinging clouds of powdered chalk into the air, in order 
to make clear their peaceful intentions, and friendly 
relations were established. Resisting a pressing invita- 
tion to camp in the village, the Dreadnought was moored 
some distance away in a quiet sheltered spot. This was 
fortunate, for during the night a strong breeze brought 
the waves over the narrow spit of sand, completely 
wrecking many of the huts. The natives of Nime do 
not adopt the general plan followed in New Guinea of 

240 




Plainsmen and Pygmies 

Two plainsmen and four pygmies. The cap and bags are of woven grass. 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 241 

building their huts on piles, so as to raise them above the 
low swampy ground which is so liable to inundations. 
The wretched people took refuge in their canoes, but 
were compelled to stand by and witness the havoc 
wrought on their homes, the surrounding country being 
one vast mangrove swamp without a foot of land being 
visible at high water. As the tide fell and the feeling of 
security was restored, the natives showed their eagerness 
to trade fruit and odds and ends, amongst them being 
included their wives and daughters, who showed no 
reluctance. Stone clubs, bows and arrows, and even 
skulls were temptingly placed in prominent positions. 
The natives have very little knowledge of the properties 
of iron or steel, and good knives are ruined at once by 
being used for chipping or carving stone. 

On a tour of exploration up the Kaiqua river the 
Dreadnought was escorted by a crowd of canoes, whose 
behaviour became so boisterous and suspicious that 
Rawling determined to make a dash down-stream to 
Nime, where he spent the night, and the behaviour of 
the villagers was all that could be desired. Rawling 
is uncertain if the conduct of the men was hostile; at 
any rate he determined to be wise before the event. It 
was discovered afterwards that although the Kaiqua 
was merely a creek with a large mouth, and navigable 
only a few miles, there was a passage behind Nime 
leading east into the Timoura river, but kept secret 
lest the white men should migrate, and so the natives 
would lose the monopoly of trade with them. 

Photographs and illustrations from papers formed 
a never-ending source of joy to the people of Nime, but 
as they knew only four animals — dog, pig, wallaby and 
cus-cus, with any degree of intimacy, it was amusing to 
hear them describe a Derby winner as a pig, or a High- 
land bull as a cus-cus. Society beauties were greatly 
admired, and were assumed to be the wives of the white 



242 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

men, thereby bringing them much honour. Certain toys 
dehghted them, but a watch was assumed to be aUve, 
so it was not curious that it should make a noise. These 
natives dishke salt, and will not touch salt fish however 
hungry they may be. 

A return was made to the Mimika, but the voyage was 
extended further west with a view to exploration. 
Whilst exploring the Ateoka, a canoe full of men from 
Obota overtook them, somewhat aggrieved that they had 
passed their village without the courtesy of a call, and 
begged them to stay the night with them, when they 
w6uld give their visitors all the delicacies the place 
could provide. They carried out their promi^e^ — but 
at an exorbitant price. The supply, however, exceeded 
the demand, and prices fell. The place proved to be a 
delightful spot. Acres of land were thickly planted 
with bananas, over which rose an occasional coco-nut 
tree, whilst up-stream were numerous tobacco planta- 
tions. The people were most averse to parting with 
their visitors on the following day, and with their arms 
full of sago dishes, spears, skulls, etc., stood on the bank 
attempting to drive one last bargain, until the Dread- 
nought was lost to sight round the bend. After a pleasant 
visit to Dobo, in the Aru Islands, a return was made 
to Wakatimi. 

Both the Mimika and Obota rivers were found to be 
in full flood. Trees and often whole islands of vegetation 
were rushing down the stream, jostling each other in a 
confused mass as the surging torrent swept onwards 
to the sea. Already the surrounding country was in- 
undated, leaving the camp and native villages as islands 
in the midst of a vast timbered swamp ; the former 
preserved for the moment by the dykes which had been 
thrown up, and the latter by the accumulations of years 
of household refuse. The rise continued and finally the 
waters burst through the camp. The native village of 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 243 

Tourapaya collapsed like a pack of cards. The natives 
frantically threw their more precious goods into canoes, 
and vanished for good. Box was piled on box, but tons 
of valuable food-stuff were ruined. Rawling's hut 
happened to be slightly higher than the others and had 
only two and a half feet of water in it. Nothing could 
be done except wade about and try to protect the more 
perishable articles. For three days and three nights did 
the scene of havoc and discomfort last. It was perfectly 
miserable to have to sit in the hut, with one's legs 
dangling in the water, and watch every small article 
which could float appear at one door, swish across the 
room and pass out of the other, to join the vegetation 
sweeping down the river. Insects and all manner of 
creeping things, driven from their dark corners and 
hidden recesses, swarmed up the poles and walls, whilst 
along the beams overhead scurried numerous families 
of rats. The whole country from the mountains to the 
sea was under water, and so widespread was the flood 
that coolies returning from up-stream paddled right 
across the peninsula into the doorway of their own 
sleeping house, after being fifteen hours in their canoe. 
This visitation was the worst the expedition experienced, 
but it was not the last. On the fourth day the waters 
subsided and fell steadily ; work was recommenced, 
and the putrid fish and evil-smelling rice cast for ever 
into the river. 

The Mimika continued in full flood, but this was an 
advantage, for it provided an opportunity of testing the 
abilities of a new motor-boat obtained from Dobo. 
Canoes were lashed three abreast, and on the platform 
were piled the goods to be transported and towed by 
the launch. What a luxury it seemed after the toilsome 
labour of paddling. 

Another of those inexplicable actions on the part of 
the Papuan carriers occurred during an expedition to 



244 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

the Wataikwa river under the leadership of Marshall, 
one of the members of the white party. The carriers 
had seemed happy and contented, when without a word 
of warning they walked unconcernedly into the jungle 
and — vanished. There was nothing for Marshall and 
his Gurkhas to do but to shoulder double loads, and 
march back to the river where they had left their canoe ; 
every hour was of importance, for rations were running 
very low. When they arrived at the river the canoe was 
gone ! Every article not of the utmost necessity was 
hidden away, and a wearisome march to Ibo, the nearest 
village, commenced. They were met in an exhausted 
condition with every mark of sympathy by the villagers, 
who helped them with their loads. The deserters were 
afterwards punished by being debarred from all privileges 
accorded to other workers and villagers. 

Parimau had by this time assumed imposing propor- 
tions. The numerous improvements and extensive 
clearings had almost eradicated the mosquito nuisance ; 
but on the other hand the bluebottles increased, until 
life became almost unbearable ; their persistent lust 
for laying eggs in food and clothes drove one to the verge 
of madness. Rawling feelingly remarks that of all pests 
New Guinea flies are the worst. 

During the first year of the expedition in the country 
it was but rarely that one experienced the luxury of 
dry clothes, and yet not a single man suffered from a 
cold in the head. How it rained ! During the first 
year rain fell on three hundred and thirty-three days, 
and on two hundred and ninety-five days was accom- 
panied by thunder and lightning. Was there ever such 
a streaming land ? 

A passage had been cut to the Kamura, a swift 
stream difficult to cross, but with beautiful surroundings. 
Broad, with a stony and sandy bed, the river sweeps 
between lines of casuarina trees, behind which again 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 245 

grows the ranker vegetation of the forest, with its 
tangled mass of creepers, vines and undergrowth. 
Every other large river in these parts is of a similar 
character, except the muddy, crooked, anc' tree- jammed 
Mimika, the most useless of all rivers as a line of com- 
munication. The goods hidden by Marshall were re- 
covered and piled on the shoulders of the carriers as a 
sort of vicarious punishment for the misdemeanour of 
their relatives, greatly to their disgust. The march was 
then continued to the Wataikwa, where a site for a 
permanent camp was chosen on a stony elevation, which 
had the appearance of being immune from inundations, 
and where the surroundings were healthy and attractive 
to the eye. It was hoped that from here some access 
to the mountains might be found by following the course 
of the river. To do this the river had to be crossed 
dozens of times, a by no means easy operation with 
the rushing water up to one's armpits. They were 
now well in the hills, nearly five hundred feet above the 
sea and amidst the most beautiful surroundings, with 
rounded slopes clad in every species of tropical vegeta- 
tion rising on all sides, while up the valley rugged 
mountains could be seen, too precipitous to scale, but 
still clothed wherever a shrub could get a hold. Black 
and white cockatoos whirled noisily overhead, and the 
spoor of pig, cassowary, and wallaby were to be seen 
meandering in all directions. They were far from the 
hunting grounds of the natives, a sanctuary for game and 
a place where, to the four-footed animals, man was 
unknown. 

The river bed was followed, but it became more and 
more restricted, until at last a pool which could not be 
circumvented, and was too deep to be forded, put a stop 
to further progress ; so steps were retraced to the last 
camping place in the bed of the river, and just in 
time, when the river roared down in spate. Had the 



246 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

river risen more suddenly, or the retirement been de- 
layed, it would certainly have resulted in the loss of 
goods, and probably of life. The only course left was 
to cut a path eastward through the jungle. But now 
rain came down in a steady, persistent downpour, and 
the work was continued in the worst possible conditions. 
The density of the growth almost passes belief ; through 
it no man can force a way unless with an axe in hand, and 
as the majority of the trees are of the hardest wood, the 
stems varying from four to eight inches in diameter, 
and clothed from top to bottom with water-laden earth 
hidden beneath a cloak of moss, progress at times 
became impossible. An idea of the labour entailed in 
the task of clearing a two-foot path may be judged by 
the fact that a stretch of five thousand yards required 
three weeks incessant work before a man could pass 
along without brushing the stems. Snakes abounded, 
some poisonous, while all the time mosquitoes buzzed 
around and leeches prowled over one's clothes in search 
of a succulent piece of flesh. 

The Iwaka river was at length reached, a turbulent 
yellow-stained torrent racing between stony shores. 
A site for a new camp was chosen, and search made for a 
ford, but for three days none could be found. A 
Gurkha found a twelve-foot python lying along the 
branch of a tree with its head hanging down a couple 
of feet. The natives quickly cut off its head with a 
piece of split bamboo, but not until it had been cut 
into two-foot pieces did its contortions cease. These 
pieces, with the addition of a repulsive-looking iguana, 
were destined for the supper-pot. 

To the south of the camp many of the greater birds 
of paradise were dancing in the trees. In olden times 
they were believed to have no legs and to live continu- 
ally in the skies. Hundreds of these skins are exported 
annually from New Guinea and the Aru Islands, and 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 247 

since the female lays but one egg during the nesting 
season, and the males do not come to full plumage 
until three years of age, it is merely a question of time 
before the breed is exterminated, unless restrictions are 
placed on their indiscriminate slaughter. No more 
beautiful sight can be witnessed than that of a full- 
grown male, with his great yellow breast plumes passing 
upward between the outstretched wings and forming 
a quivering arch over his body, dancing up and down 
before the female, and doing his utmost to win her 
heart. 

A return was now made to the Wataikwa, and thence 
to the Mimika and Parimau. Although the Wataikwa 
showed no signs of anything unusual, the Mimika gave 
evidence of a severe storm, though only eighteen miles 
separated them. Persistent rains so swelled the volume 
of water in the rivers that not a single foot of land 
appeared above the level of the overflowing streams. 
The village of Parimau was swept away, and even the 
land on which it was built had disappeared. For some 
time the white men's camp, though built fifteen feet 
above the level of the water, tottered on its foundation. 
The morning light revealed a waste of turbid water 
dotted with canoes laden with a heterogeneous mass of 
household treasures and human beings, anchored to 
trees, but before an hour had passed the natives had 
resumed their phlegmatic calm, and fires were burning 
in the stern of each canoe. A new village was built when 
the waters had subsided, but the same fate overtook it. 

Mention has been made of the motor-launch obtained 
with so much trouble from Dobo. A bad fate pursued 
her, for the Amboina in charge of her, against orders, 
attempted one pitch-dark night to return to Wakatimi 
on a high flood. Mistaking a clearer portion of the 
forest for a bend in the river he ran her full tilt into a 
mass of piled-up tree trunks. With constant bailing 



248 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

the launch was floated to Wakatimi, where she sank, to 
remain under water for a month. With the assistance of 
some Dutch pioneers she was docked, patched up and 
retarred, but she leaked so badly that a man had to be 
employed continually in bailing her out. 

A return to Parimau, of which only a fringe of huts 
remained, was followed by a visit from the people of Ibo 
for an annual dance and hunt. The dance was successful, 
but the hunt was a woeful failure. There is no doubt that 
the constant firing of guns by the collectors had scared 
away the game. Consequently the natives were crest- 
fallen and sulky ; so orders were given that all carcases, 
after being skinned, should be given over to the natives 
for their cooking-pot. Where a Papuan is, nothing is 
wasted. 

For the fourth time the ill-fated village of Parimau 
was swept away, and nothing but the hope of doing trade 
with the white men restrained the natives from migrating 
to a less luckless locality. The darkness of night, the 
gurgling suck of the waters, the cries of the natives, and 
the fall of great trees, both in the water and in the jungle, 
produced a pandemonium not readily forgotten. Scarcely 
had the natives recovered from this disaster than another 
one threatened. This decided them, for sick of being 
washed so regularly and persistently out of their homes 
they packed their canoes with every portable article, 
sailed down the stream, and were no more seen, leaving 
only a few loafers. 

While on a collecting expedition. Grant, a member of 
the expedition, hit on a path which led to Wambirimi, 
the principal home of the pygmies discovered many 
months before. His reception was decidedly cold, no 
women or children being seen, a sure sign of unfriendly 
feeling, and he was given to understand that his room 
rather than his company was desired. Rawling and 
Marshall determined to follow the same path to the 




Pygmies Making Fire 

I. By friction causing the wood to smoulder. 

2 and 3. Blowing the smouldering embers into a flame 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 249 

pygmy village and spend a night amongst them, and, if 
possible, take notes, measurements, and photographs. 
They hoped, also, to see the womenkind. No time was 
lost in setting out. It was eight months since Rawling 
had last seen the Kapare river, along which he now was 
travelling ; all the old landmarks had vanished, carried 
away by the swirling floods, or were so altered as to be 
unrecognisable, and their old camp, together with two 
miles of the path they had hewn with so much labour, 
had completely vanished. 

On the third day they set forth on the final climb to 
the village of Wambirimi. The track led directly up 
the narrow ravine out of which the river flowed. At 
times it wound along razor-backed ridges, at others 
dropped into dark and gloomy ravines, but was always 
compressed into the smallest dimensions by the all- 
enveloping jungle. Not a sound broke the silence of 
the forest except the call of a solitary bird of paradise ; 
and the sight of a large snake of exquisite emerald hue 
which passed quietly through the line of men and into 
the undergrowth beyond, was the only form of life 
which met the eye. But that life did exist was proved 
by the numerous small noose-traps set at intervals along 
either side of the path, but of such small size as to be 
incapable of holding anything more formidable than 
a rat. 

A steady climb brought them to the top of a knoll 
from which could be seen clearings and cultivated 
ground. But the silence was so oppressive that the 
carriers began to show nervousness. To show that the 
intentions of the party were friendly, Marshall gave a 
loud hail, and a halt was made. A babel of cries arose 
from the cultivated area, the shouts of the men and the 
shrieks of the women as they fled to the jungle. Down 
the mountain sides the hillmen converged from all direc- 
tions, racing along the felled trees and across the tangled 



250 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

growth, shouting at the tops of their voices, and fitting 
arrows to their bows as they ran. An excited confab 
followed in which Rawling's carriers explained that the 
intentions of the visitors were quite friendly, so that, 
making the best of an unpleasant intrusion, they allowed 
the party to stay, but with a very bad grace. Their 
avarice, too, was excited by the boxes of trade goods, 
calculated to enrich the community. They were led to 
the village, their guide showing his sense of humour 
by drawing his bow with arrow pointing full at Rawling's 
body, grinning the while. Rawling appreciated the joke 
with a somewhat forced smile. A place was pointed 
out on which the tents might be pitched, but all the 
time they showed great suspicion, and no women or 
children were to be seen. But after a time, as their 
visitors manifested great indifference to them, and in 
some measure owing to a judicious distribution of beads, 
they evinced a more friendly spirit. They were, as a 
rule, well developed, but so dirty that only the promi- 
nent parts of their bodies showed their true colour, 
which was somewhat lighter than that of the coast 
Papuans. The nose was straight and broad, the eyes 
black, the jaw marked, and the general contour of the 
face oval. In dress they varied little from those who 
were first captured. 

liarge and strong net-bags of coarse string, interwoven 
with a pattern of yellow fibre, are worn slung over one 
shoulder, and from the corner hang from one to as many 
as twenty boar's tusks, trophies of the chase, and highly 
prized by the owner. The bags contain the entire sum 
of their portable possessions, a roll or two of string for 
fishing purposes, a fire-stick, and a length of split rattan, 
birds of paradise plumes, and other odds and ends, all 
jealously guarded and never allowed out of the owner's 
possession. Another bag of smaller size is suspended 
round the neck close up to the chin, where it is 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 251 

protected from the rain, and in this is kept tobacco, 
tinder, and dried leaves for use as cigarette papers, 
for they are great smokers. 

Many wear earrings of the small black seeds of the 
wild banana, and necklaces of the teeth or shoulder- 
blades of the wallaby. On the body itself was very 
little or no clothing. The houses are substantially built 
of wood, on piles about ten feet above the ground, with 
a verandah in front three to five feet broad, to which 
access is obtained by a ladder of a very primitive kind 
consisting of a pole with notches. Fires are lit in a box 
of sand let into the middle of the floor. In spite of 
persuasion and bribery the men were obdurate in 
their refusal to bring forward their women, whether 
from a fear that they would be carried off, or from some 
other cause, could not be ascertained. After their 
first feelings of trepidation had worn off, the men placed 
themselves unreservedly in the hands of the white men, 
and permitted themselves to be measured and photo- 
graphed without reluctance, especially when they found 
that no evil consequences resulted. Relations between 
the pygmies and the plainsmen were not cordial, as 
the latter adopted a superior air and treated the little 
men in a manner which they resented, helping them- 
selves to whatever they fancied until called to order. 
The hillsmen exchange tobacco for dogs and shells 
with the plainsmen. Tobacco as has been said is smoked 
in the form of cigarettes with a dried leaf as the outer 
covering, and a crack is made in the centre through 
which the smoke is inhaled. 

As tolerance rather than friendliness, and in some 
cases absolute hostility, appeared to be the key-note 
of the relations between the two parties, it was evident 
that the visitors were outstaying their welcome, and 
accordingly it would be wiser to leave in peace. So pre- 
parations were made for departure, and the expedition 






252 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

was escorted as far as the top of the hill, then left 
to itself. 

The return to Parimau was followed by illness amongst 
the European members of the expedition, which left 
Rawling and Marshall as the sole white representatives. 
Left to their own resources they moved to the coast and 
pitched camp on the seashore close to the village of 
Atabo. Their new neighbours proved less interesting 
than those of Parimau, more sulky in their manners, 
and more grasping in their dealings. 

Meantime the derelict motor-launch had been 
thoroughly overhauled and put in working order, and 
a return was made to Wakatimi. Rawling had now 
assumed the leadership of the expedition, vice Good- 
fellow invalided home. A new relay of coolies had 
arrived, as unsatisfactory as the first lot ; but with 
these it was determined to attempt a penetration to 
the mountains, and stores were transferred from 
Wakatimi to Parimau as quickly as possible by the 
launch, but the lowness of the water greatly hampered 
proceedings, and half-way up the goods had to be 
transhipped to dug-outs, which were hauled along by 
main force. A double murder took place at this time 
in the camp, two men, both convicts, attacked each 
other with knives so ferociously that both were dead 
within five minutes. The incident created little interest 
amongst the others ; the use of the knife in the East is 
too common to give rise to comment. 

After considerable transport difficulties had been 
overcome, a start was made for the Wataikwa river, 
which they found a chaotic mass of turbulent water ; the 
camp they had formed eight months before was now an 
island surrounded by a racing stream, and the store- 
house was tottering to its fall. But by strenuous 
exertions and a stout rattan rope everything was 
transferred to the opposite bank. Further east rushed 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 253 

the Iwaka river, but no practicable ford could be dis- 
covered. A reward of one hundred guilders was offered 
to any who could devise a means for bridging the 
torrent. Eager to win this fortune the coolies started 
up- and the Gurkhas down-stream. Evidences of the 
coolies' work came floating down in the shape of felled 
trees with broken backs, and in the evening a dejected 
party returned with failure stamped on their faces. 
The Gurkhas, on the other hand, came back with the 
news that one of them had succeeded in crossing the 
river with the aid of a rattan fastened to his waist. 
He had proceeded up-stream to a tree which had been 
previously noted from the bank as standing in a favour- 
able position, and had felled it with such precision that 
it had remained spanning the river two feet above the 
water. Even though the river was lower than usual 
owing to the fine weather, the accomplishment of this 
feat required both pluck and enterprise, and was a 
feather in the cap of the Gurkhas. 

Over the tree a rattan was carried and secured to both 
banks, but during the night a flood came down and swept 
the frail bridge out of existence. There remained now 
only the flimsy rattan connection between the two banks, 
beneath which raced the swirling torrent. Increased 
bribes failed to bring forward a volunteer who would 
attempt the passage until a Gurkha offered to cross. 
Tying a rattan to his waist in case the other should give 
way, he proceeded laboriously to haul himself across. 
His body was dragged level with the surface of the water, 
but he grimly made his way hand over hand until he 
reached half-way where the upward struggle began. 
The exertion was telling on him and his progress was 
slow until he reached the three-quarter mark, when he 
stopped. The rattan secured to his body was hampering 
his movements dreadfully, for the stream had caught it 
and it was dragging him down. It seemed only a matter 



254 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

of moments now ! Fortunately at this critical pass 
his life-line broke, and he was free. With one last effort, 
urged on by encouraging shouts from the bank, he 
completed the few remaining yards and sank exhausted 
on the bank. 

With one man on the opposite bank the work of 
building the bridge proceeded apace ; more rattan was 
passed across and tied to the trees until finally a strand 
of five thicknesses was in position, along which an agile 
man could pass in comparative safety. All through 
the second day the work was continued, and by nightfall 
the bridge was complete. The two upper parallels, 
each formed of many strands, served as hand-rails, 
whilst below and between them hung the footway, also 
consisting of one thick rope. From one hand-rail to the 
other, and beneath the foot-rope, were passed loops, so 
that the weight of the passenger should be equally 
distributed, and the whole sufficiently strong to allow 
the laden coolies to cross in safety. 

The journey was now continued, and as the objective. 
Mount Godman, could not be reached owing to the 
failing supply of food, it was resolved to make certain of 
what was within reach rather than to run the risk of not 
obtaining any results at all. So a spur was climbed and a 
camp pitched three thousand two hundred feet above the 
sea. The site was bad but it was the only one possible. 
Next day the ascent was continued through a tangled 
mass of vegetation, from which any incautious movement 
brought down a copious shower of water, until an 
altitude of five thousand four hundred feet was reached 
and camp was pitched. During the last thousand feet 
the path lay over a thick layer of live or dead timber 
on which the heavier members fared badly. 

One day's rations only remained beyond those 
required for the return journey, so leaving the miserable 
coolies in the camp, and taking four of the best cutters, 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 255 

Rawling set out to make a forced march, and after 
hours of hacking and hewing reached a height of five 
thousand six hundred feet, and suddenly arrived at the 
very kind of spot they had so long been striving to find. 
They found themselves on the narrowest of ridges, 
with the ground, bare of trees, dropping sheer on either 
side. The low shrubs were at once removed, and there 
they sat hoping against hope that the mist might 
clear. Instead of this it gave way to a dense fog, 
which they knew full well would last till nightfall. With 
spirits at low ebb they returned to the camp. An 
uncomfortable cold night was passed, the miserable 
coolies verging on collapse. 

Before daybreak a hasty cup of tea was drunk, and a 
race to beat the sun began in the darkness. Wet to the 
skin from the exertion and the drippings off the trees 
they broke out at last upon the open ridge to find not 
a cloud in the sky, and the most glorious view that 
Rawling ever saw unfolded before his eyes. Not a 
moment was lost ; observations were made and details 
entered only just in time, for clouds were collecting and 
rolling down the distant mountain sides. Where they 
had imagined lay the course of one river they found 
another ; a hill here, a ravine there, were now exposed 
to view, though all had been hidden from the level 
of the plain. To the north, standing out hard and clear, 
rose the great precipice already referred to. Black and 
forbidding towered the great cliff, formed of hard 
limestone, the stratification of which could easily be 
seen. The highest point is Mount Leonard Darwin, a 
castellated peak, with an altitude of fourteen thousand 
feet above sea level. The face here has a clear drop of 
little short of ten thousand feet, or about one and three- 
quarter miles — far and away the greatest precipice in 
the world. 

The work was done. The quest, though falling short 



256 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

of what had been hoped for, had succeeded. But at 
what cost of hfe, money and time ! 

So eager was every one to get back to their base that 
the Wataikwa was reached in half the calculated tim e 

The work remaining to be done was to explore the 
coast, and transport the stores from Parimau to Waka- 
timi. Before leaving the neighbourhood Rawling made 
one last effort to catch a glimpse of a pygmy woman, 
but no arguments, blandishments or bribery would 
prevail with the men, so the attempt was relinquished, 
and axes, beads, etc., were finally packed up in disgust. 

In the meantime a hurricane had swept over Waka- 
timi, levelling many of the storehouses and buildings 
with the ground, but the damage had been repaired 
with such energy that when Rawling returned there were 
but few evidences of the destruction wrought. The 
launch, too, had met with another mishap ; she had 
been set on fire, and the petrol tank had burst, but by 
dumping on bucket after bucket of dry earth the flames 
were subdued and the hull was little the worse. 

An exploration of the mouth of the Atoeka river was; 
now undertaken. The entrance is fine and free from, 
obstruction, but a few miles higher up is navigable only 
for boats of shallow draught. The village of Atoeka is 
large and clean, with a pleasant background of coco-nut ; 
and bread-fruit trees, and tobacco plantations beyond. 
The reception was friendly, and the eagerness to trade, 
keen. A visit was next paid to the Kamura River, a 
splendid sheet of water, navigable for large launches 
as far as Ibo. Had this river been chosen as the base 
of operations, instead of the muddy, fever-stricken 
Mimika, what a saving of life, time, and trouble would 
have been effected. But regrets were useless, for its 
existence was not known. The launch once again en- 
countered misfortune, for she ran full tilt into a log, so 
that her engines were for hours disabled. As further 




The Gurkha Jangbir 

Hero of the bridge-building episode. 




Spanning the Torrent 

The bridge thrown by the expedition across the Iwaka River. 



A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 257 

trouble was to be expected, hope of more extended 
exploration up the river was abandoned, and a return 
made by the eastern or Kamura branch. They suddenly 
came upon the village of Kamura, and were welcomed 
by a wild-looking crew of a much lower type than had 
been previously encountered, both men and women 
being in a complete state of nudity. No attempt was 
made to trade, so the engines were started again. They 
were followed by four canoes full of men, but the launch 
soon left them behind. But the motor-engine again 
broke down, and while it was being induced to work the 
four canoes came up alongside. Without a word two 
men stepped into the launch and began to shoulder a 
box of knives and axes. With a yell one of the Gurkhas 
sprang at him and drove the muzzle of his rifle into the 
thief's ribs. The box was dropped as if it had been 
red-hot, and the canoes drew off to consult. The result 
was that one half disappeared into the jungle, while 
two canoes watched from above. Fortunately, and 
without any warning, the engines began to work, and 
the natives were left behind looking very disappointed. 
There is no doubt that blood would have been shed had 
they attempted a second attack. 

Within an hour the launch arrived in a glorious bay, 
studded with islands — a pleasant, peaceful scene. There 
were shoals of gorgeous-coloured fish of all shapes and 
sizes. With occasional stops, Wakatimi was at length 
reached. 

The exploration of the Wania river was now all that 
remained to complete the map of the district. The 
mouth of the river, which a week before could not be 
sounded with an eighteen-foot pole, was now completely 
blocked up by a bar of sand. Then happened the crown- 
ing misfortune to the launch, for off the mouth of the 
Atoeka the propeller dropped off. A storm was rising, 
and there were numerous foam-covered reefs. 



258 A LAND OF PERPETUAL RAIN 

The launch was towing a yawl laden with stores, and 
an attempt was made to tow the launch by means of 
the yawl's oars. But the current was too strong and 
ground was lost, so the anchor was dropped. In this 
perilous condition they remained until midnight, when 
the wind dropped. Morning dawned and it was decided 
to abandon the launch for the present, since towing was 
out of the question. Goods and men were transhipped, 
leaving but two or three inches of freeboard, and after 
a precarious passage a landing was effected on a mud- 
bank in the bay of Timoura, tired and soaked, but 
thankful. Next day the stores were unloaded from the 
yawl, and the launch was towed to the beach in a very 
bad condition. By the aid of some natives she was 
paddled to Nime. The village was quite deserted ; one 
of those inexplicable fits had seized the natives, and 
they had stampeded in a body. Two days later they 
were in Mimika Bay, although defeated by the WaniaJ 
river, glad, nevertheless, that they were out of an* 
awkward predicament. 

The expedition was now over and the work complete ;j 
there was little with which to reproach oneself and much] 
with which to be content, leaving only the pleasurabl( 
anticipation that the final day was at hand. Thousands 
of specimens of animal life had been collected, and mucl 
valuable ethnographical and geographical informatioi 
acquired. 

[The information given in these two chapters has beei 
derived from Capt. (late Brigadier-General) C. G. Raw- 
ling's book. The Land of the New Guinea Pygmies, h] 
kind permission of the author.] 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE HOME OF THE BIRD OF PARADISE 

In the course of thirty years of almost continuous 
journeyings in both hemispheres, it was Mr. Pratt's 
fortune, as a naturaUst and collector, to stray far from 
the beaten tracks and to know something of the spell 
and mystery of the earth's solitudes. His work in quest 
of additions to the great Natural History collections, 
both public and private, had led him to the Rocky 
Mountains, the Amazons, the Republic of Colombia, the 
Yangtse gorges, and the snows of Tibet ; but it is safe to 
say that none of these aroused his interest and curiosity 
to so great a degree as his expedition to the still almost 
unexplored Papua or New Guinea, second largest of the 
world's islands, and almost the last to guard its secrets 
from the geographer, the naturalist, and the anthro- 
pologist. It had been his intention to work first in 
Dutch New Guinea, but various accidents, and the 
hostility of a warlike tribe, brought these plans to an 
untimely end, and he had to spend the greater part of 
his time within the borders of the British possession. 
Port Moresby, the British Government station, on the 
south-west coast, lat. 9° 30' S., consequently became his 
main base of operations, and it was in a north-westerly 
and south-easterly direction from that settlement that 
his journeyings lay. During these journeyings he was 
accompanied by his son Harry, a lad of sixteen. 

After his disappointment in Dutch New Guinea, Mr. 
Pratt sailed for Port Moresby, the approach to which is 
dangerous owing to the reefs which encircle the coast, 

259 




tWIR PRATT'S ROUTES 



HOME OF THE BIRD OF PARADISE 261 

and accordingly great caution had to be used in navi- 
gating the ship into harbour. This is an unpretentious 
and sweltering place, running Hades or Aden a close 
second. 

The preparations for his expedition occupied Mr. 
Pratt's careful attention for some time, as he was 
penetrating into unknown land, and the journey would 
occupy three weeks through a region where roads were 
unknown. Carriers had to be procured, and provisions, 
ammunition, " trade " goods for traffic with the natives, 
cases for specimens, and the hundred and one things 
necessary for such an expedition had all to be provided 
and packed in portable form. 

From Yule Island, their headquarters, they sailed for 
Bioto Creek, a pestiferous place notorious for its 
mosquitoes, but a perfect region for feathered game. 
The inhabitants of the village were not particularly 
amiable, and showed themselves extremely grasping and 
extortionate in their demands. After some delay they 
agreed to convey the expedition by canoe as far as the 
path to Epa, a village some miles further on. The chief 
of this village, Mavai, proved a true friend to Mr. Pratt 
in his difficulties. He was a fine man, a great hunter, 
and a strict disciplinarian, and at his word the chief 
difficulty, that of carriers, was smoothed away. At this 
village the native houses begin to be beautifully con- 
structed. They are on a raised platform, and look like 
inverted boats, the roof being formed by bending over 
long sticks, so as to form an arch that is thatched with 
sago leaf. The floor is particularly good, and there is an 
admirable guest-house, with a fine level floor of split 
sago, the pieces being one and a quarter inches wide, 
neatly laid and bound together. 

Next morning the journey to the next halting-place, 
Ekeikei, was resumed. At times a path had to be cut 
through the dense brushwood, but where the forest 



262 THE HOME OF 

foliage was thick nothing, of course, would grow 
beneath. They now had their first experience of that 
pest of the most humid land tract of the globe — the 
leech. It is a little creature about three quarters of an 
inch long, very much smaller than the European 
variety, but inflicting the same sort of three-cornered 
bite. They do not at once make their presence felt 
until one realizes that the part is covered with blood. 
They attach themselves to any exposed part of the 
body, and, of course, the natives are easy victims. 
Another abominable little parasite is the scrub-itch, a 
microscopic nuisance which is brushed from the bushes, 
and after the manner of the jigger or chigo, burrows 
under the skin, and if not promptly bathed in warm salt 
and water causes a terrible irritation very difficult to 
get rid of. 

The road, or rather track, was rough, and everywhere 
beset with ravines and precipices which called for the 
utmost care, but at length Ekeikei was reached. Next 
morning the journey was resumed to Bamboo Camp, 
where the forest trees were so high and thick that 
scarcely any light could penetrate. The surroundings 
were gloomy and depressing in the extreme, the silence 
broken only by the drip-drip of the rain and the " wauk, 
wauk " of the bird of paradise. For two hours the 
track skirted the Deeanay precipice, and the way led 
under enormous overhanging boulders which reached 
out some distance overhead. Close to the precipice 
they saw some curious mounds of what appeared to be 
sawdust. A nearer inspection showed that the tree 
under which the mounds lay was completely riddled to 
the height of at least one hundred feet by coleopterous 
larvae. It was unusual to find beetles so congregated, 
for the distribution is usually very scattered. 

As they were approaching Madui one of the carriers 
struck work, but the persuasive influence of a gigantic 



I 



THE BIRD OF PARADISE 268 

stinging nettle applied by his companions induced him 
to change his mind. Leaving Madui they crossed the 
River Aculama through a district loaded with lyco- 
podiums, ferns, and rhododendrons. The Aculama 
contains large prawns about five inches long — a very 
welcome addition to the larder. 

Dinawa, where it was proposed to pitch a permanent 
camp, was at length reached, and a clearing was soon 
found suitable for the erection of a habitation. The 
village was only fifty yards away, but the natives were 
very shy, until the exhibition of the " trade " treasures 
excited their wonder and admiration, and overcame 
their timidity. Labour was required to build the house, 
and as the report of Mr. Pratt's wealth reached other 
villages, further contingents arrived, and by the 
promise of good pay in tobacco and trade goods, 
through the medium of Sam, Mr. Pratt's Cingalese 
servant, sufficient workmen were soon secured. A 
dwelling-house was soon built, roughly it is true, but 
still providing safe shelter. On the edge of the precipice 
was erected a collecting verandah, which could be opened 
on both sides, forming, as it were, two verandahs back 
to back. The whole of the structure was raised off the 
ground on poles, and the boys had their quarters 
beneath. Beautiful water was obtained at the bottom 
of the hill, but it took three-quarters of an hour to fetch 
it. The day's work began early with the baking of 
bread and the brewing of tea. Bread rises easily in New 
Guinea, and a small quantity of hops brought with the 
expedition provided the yeast, and the supply was 
kept going by keeping back a small piece of dough 
from one batch for the next. After breakfast the boys 
were despatched to collect entomological or botanical 
specimens ; but the native is a hard man to stir into 
activity ; time is no object to him, and he likes to sit, 
smoke, and tell yarns. Collecting boxes and pins were 



264 THE HOME OF 

provided, which they occasionally appropriated, but 
these pilferers were soon sent to the rightabout. Mr. 
Pratt's lieutenant was Ow-bow, and a very capable 
collector was Doboi, a youth of fourteen, but who had 
attained to man's estate. The day was spent in 
scientific work, and the early hours of darkness in moth 
collecting. The natives were very shy of the camera, 
and one of them on being shown a print of himself 
promptly dropped it and shinned up a tree. 

A long-continued drought seriously affected the 
success of the work, forest fires destroying the vegetation 
and killing the insects, so it was decided to transfer the 
camp to the St. Joseph river, which was low, but 
beautifully limpid and very rapid. Tents were pitched 
on a patch of sand near the stream, and a bridge made 
by cutting down trees on the opposite banks so that 
their branches intertwined in mid-stream. Further up 
the stream the natives had constructed a really ingenious 
suspension-bridge of creepers and bamboos. The fish in 
this river were numerous and of good size. They are 
wonderfully provided by nature with an appliance 
which helps them to combat the extraordinary current. 
At one moment they would appear to be swept down 
resistlessly, but suddenly they would shoot off into the 
quieter water and attach themselves to the rocks by a 
strong sucker near the mouth. There they hung just 
outside the current, their tails moving gently with the 
eddy, and when they had recovered their strength they 
would make another dash through the swifter waters, 
coming to anchor again when baffled. 

It was not all tranquillity while in this neighbourhood, 
for there were rumours of war, and one fierce chief who 
exercised a reign of terrorism over the neighbouring 
villages invited Mr. Pratt and his followers to visit him 
at Mi-mi when he would kill the natives and cook and 
eat the heads of the white men. A projected visit to 













































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TWO NEW GUINEA DANDIES 



They are natives of Dinawa. Notice their tight-laced waists and the 
nose ornaments of polished shell. 



THE BIRD OF PARADISE 265 

this amiable warrior was abandoned, and a strict watch 
kept at night. 

As the stay at the St. Joseph river did not prove 
very productive it was determined to return to Dinawa, 
and on his journey Mr. Pratt secured a treasure, a new 
phallonopsis, a white orchid which fulfilled the strictest 
canons of the orchid fancier, combining a perfect white- 
ness with a thick waxiness of blossom that gives to a 
plant the very highest value, and this delightful 
specimen was as near the ideal as possible. It rested 
on a lovely damp bed of moss in the fork of a tree, and 
drew its nourishment from the humidity of the atmo- 
sphere. The drought had worked terrible havoc at 
Dinawa ; there were no provisions, the people were 
dreadfully emaciated and deaths were frequent. As a 
longer stay would have been fruitless it was determined 
to break up the camp, pack up the specimens, and 
return to Epa. The packing was of the utmost import- 
ance, for the specimens were fragile and delicate and the 
cases would receive rough usage in transit. Specimens 
were securely packed in shallow trays, and these again 
were securely packed in larger and rougher cases, for 
they had to be slung on bamboos and carried by the 
boys, and any violent concussion might break off the 
wings, legs, or antennse of the insects. A good instance 
of native wireless telegraphy was afforded while at 
Dinawa. Mr. Pratt had sent out one of his collectors, and 
wished to have information about him before leaving 
the camp. The wireless was set in motion, signals were 
shouted from one hill-top to another, for in the clear 
air of that part sound carried for great distances, and in 
a very short time Mr. Pratt had learnt all he wished 
to know, and some time afterwards the collector him- 
self appeared. He reported that his companion had 
been murdered ; his jugular vein had been severed by a 
spear, but whether by the truculent chief mentioned 



266 THE HOME OF 

above, or by some lurking robber, could not be found 
out. 

After a tiring journey Oofafa was reached, thence by 
sea to Port Moresby without mishap, except that the 
botanical specimens were ruined by the salt water, an 
irreparable and most disappointing loss. The other 
cases, however, were unharmed, and were despatched 
safely to England. 

A somewhat protracted stay at Port Moresby was 
varied by a visit to Hura, the great fishing-place. The 
village is fairly large, and most of the houses stand in 
the water on piles. The shore is thickly fringed with 
coco-nut plantations. The people live by supplying the 
inland natives with fish. They go down to the fishing- 
ground, about two miles from shore, in small dug-out 
canoes ; the fishing is done at night, and just as the sun 
sinks the canoes pass out in great crowds. In each boat 
are four or five fishermen, who pole up the shallows, and 
paddle when they come to deeper water. As the dark- 
ness deepens the flotilla suddenly bursts into flame, for 
their method of attracting gar-fish, which is their chief 
quarry, is by burning huge flares of dried palm leaves. 
Each of these flares is made up of a considerable bundle 
of leaves, and the men brandish them about in their 
hands. The light lasts for a considerable time. The 
effect of these many fires reflected in long streaks on the 
water is extremely picturesque. The fishing lasts all 
night, and at dawn the fleet returns with the catch. 

The work is not unattended with danger, for some- 
times the gar-fish, which are armed with a sharp sword- 
like projection of bone from the front part of the head, 
will, as they leap in blind terror of the light, strike the 
fishermen and kill them. The natives set up a stick in 
the water where anyone has been killed by gar-fish. 

There being nothing of interest in that dull region to 
detain him, Mr. Pratt decided to return to Port Moresby 



THE BIRD OF PARADISE 267 

by sea. The canoe was a dug-out, about eighteen inches 
wide, which just held Mr. Pratt, his son Harry, and 
two boatmen. When their journey was half done a 
tremendous swell began to come in, and soon the dug-out 
was dancing like a cork and shipping seas so that 
constant bailing was necessary. It seemed proble- 
matical if the journey would finish at Port Moresby, but 
the boatmen, though frightened, handled the canoe 
skilfully. They kept the little square sail of matting 
under excellent control, and steered with the flat of a 
paddle from the side at the stern. Finally, close to 
Hula, they got into calmer water, and eventually reached 
Port Moresby in safety. 

Preparations were now made for an expedition into 
the unexplored interior, and, as usual, the chief difficulty 
was the collecting of sufficient carriers. Goods were 
sent as far as Ekeikei in relays, thus following the line of 
the former expedition. While passing through Epa Mr. 
Pratt noticed specially the extraordinary method of 
water supply there in vogue. A spring which supplies 
the community was distant some twenty minutes' walk 
down-hill, and twice every day, in the morning and just 
before dusk, the women went down to draw water. This 
they carried in long bamboos measuring at least twelve 
feet. The partitions dividing the sections of bamboo 
had been knocked out with a long, hard stick, but the 
bottom one was allowed to remain, and these light but 
unwieldy receptacles, capable of holding about thirty- 
six pints each, were taken to the spring and filled. The 
open end was plugged with a green leaf, and the women 
carried the vessels up-hill held slantwise over their 
shoufder. The bamboo was set up against a shady wall, 
beside the house door, and the method of procuring a 
small supply of water was comical in the extreme. 
Whenever one wished to drink two people had to 
officiate ; one took hold of the bamboo by the lower 



268 THE HOME OF 

end, and the other held the higher. It was then gingerly 
lowered, for the greatest care had to be taken not to tilt 
it too far, otherwise more water than was required would 
have come out with a rush and drenched the drinker. 

Mavai, the chief, who had befriended Mr. Pratt on 
his first expedition, gave him a hearty welcome. He was 
busily engaged in hunting the cassowary and the pig, 
and generally keeping up his reputation as a great 
sportsman. As a mark of his esteem he presented 
Mr. Pratt with two eggs, for he kept fowls. These were 
boiled with lively anticipation of a treat, but the break- 
ing of the shells only led to the discovery that the eggs 
were of a remote antiquity. They were passed on, 
however, to Ow-bow, Mr. Pratt's headman, who received 
them with gratitude, for he regarded chicken in this 
form as a very great delicacy indeed. 

A start was now made for Ekeikei, which Mr. Pratt 
had selected in his mind as the scene of future labours, 
and on arriving there at once set about building a 
permanent camp. He chose the site, which was fifteen 
hundred feet above the sea-level in a part of the forest 
overlooking a fine valley, and all set to work speedily, 
felling the forest trees to make the necessary clearing. 
It was a big business, but he intended to erect much 
more permanent structures, which were to be built large 
enough not only to serve for scientific work, but as a 
depot for expeditions to other districts. The house and 
two collecting verandahs were all in one building, one 
verandah facing the forest and the other the valley, so 
as to permit of work being carried on whatever the 
direction of the wind. The whole structure was built on 
poles six feet six inches off the ground, so that the boys 
could shelter, sling their hammocks, and take their 
meals below. This work occupied three weeks, in 
which Mavai's people assisted, and were helped by the 
villagers of the neighbouring chief, Kafulu. These 



THE BIRD OF PARADISE 269 

came in to lend a hand for the sake of tobacco and other 
trade articles they needed. 

The best thatch to be obtained in Papua is the sago 
leaf, and of this the natives make roofs that are water- 
tight and very durable. At Ekeikei this plan was 
adopted. Along the rafters of the house were run 
horizontal bamboos, and instead of a ridge-pole roof 
were fixed two of these bamboos running from end to 
end a few inches apart. The frond of the sago leaf, which 
was used for this purpose, is at least four feet long ; it 
measures six inches at the base, and tapers to a point. 
To begin the thatch, one takes the leaf and bends it 
two-thirds away from the apex. One starts from the 
bamboo horizontal that lies nearest the eaves and 
hooks the leaf over, laying the pointed end out. On the 
next higher bamboo one hooks over another leaf, 
similarly folded, so that its long pointed end far over- 
laps the other, and so on until the ridge of the roof is 
reached. The operation is thus repeated until the whole 
roof is thatched. The space between the two parallels 
which form the ridge-pole is finally covered with grass 
laid thickly across and across. The sago leaf is grooved 
laterally, and forms, as it were, a natural water-spout 
for carrying off the rain. 

So durable is this roof that after an absence of five 
months they found their Ekeikei house still watertight. 
The thatch is, however, a great harbourage for cock- 
roaches, and there must have been millions of them in 
the house. At night they could be heard rustling among 
the dry leaves. They did not appear to do any actual 
damage, and they had the grace not to fall down on the 
occupants. 

The members of the expedition had settled down to 
routine work when a cloud loomed black in the horizon 
in the shape of the chief Kafulu. This worthy, whose 
village was an hour's journey off, had often visited the 



270 THE HOME OF 

camp while the building was in progress. He was a very 
low type of Papuan, with a receding forehead and a face 
altogether ape-like. After his people, who helped in the 
building operations, had been paid off, Mr. Pratt did a 
little business with the chief himself, and ordered sago 
stalks for wattling the sides of the house. For these 
he was paid in advance, but the sago was not forthcom- 
ing. Mr. Pratt made no complaint at first, and this 
probably led the chief to believe that he could treat him 
with further contumely, for he suddenly began to 
threaten the boys, until at last they would no longer 
venture out into the forest to collect. Accordingly Ow- 
bow and his wife were sent down to Kafulu's village to 
know the reason why he did not deliver the sago, which 
was several weeks overdue. Ow-bow was allowed to 
take his gun with him, but no cartridges, and his empty 
weapon evidently was not impressive. The poor 
emissary's experience was painful ; Kafulu did not 
take his life, but he took his effects. Now, every Papuan 
carries w^ith him as his most cherished possession a little 
net-bag, containing a charming collection of oddments 
dear to the savage mind — his knife, tobacco, bamboo 
pipe, matches, which he had earned, betel-nut and 
gourd, and little trophies of the chase. All these Kafulu 
took from the unfortunate Ow-bow, as well as his 
blanket, his dogs'-teeth necklace, and other adornments. 
Thus bereft, Ow-bow returned to the camp with his tale 
of wrong. Kafulu then sent a polite message to Mr. 
Pratt informing him that he had no intention of 
sending the sago, and further, that he was not to shoot 
bird, kangaroo, wallaby, or any game around his camp, 
for they were the chief's animals ; otherwise he would 
burn the camp and kill the occupants. 

As matters stood thus, greater precautions were con- 
sidered necessary, for it was more than likely that a 
treacherous spear might, in the darkness, penetrate the 



THE BIRD OF PARADISE 271 

thin sago walls of the house, and perhaps find its billet. 
Accordingly an inner screen of one and a half inch 
bamboo poles was built around the beds, and it was 
very improbable that a spear would penetrate both wall 
and screen. 

Matters did not improve, and so Mr. Pratt, taking his 
son Harry and his servant Sam with him, determined 
to try what a little plain personal dealing with his 
amiable neighbour would effect. He found the chief 
sitting in his village, smoking his bau-bau in solitary 
grandeur and extremely surly. He gave no greeting, in 
fact took not the slightest notice of his visitors, but 
continued to smoke stolidly. They sat down, and 
Mr. Pratt at once opened the affair, Sam and Harry 
acting as interpreters. He was told that unless he sent 
the sago at once, and returned Ow-bow's property, it 
would be necessary to bring pressure to bear on him. 
This was continued for three-quarters of an hour, 
entirely on Mr. Pratt's part, for it was not until that 
time had elapsed that Kafulu deigned to reply. He 
then remarked that he did not want them in the neigh- 
bourhood, and that he could not answer for it that his 
villagers would not wipe them all out. At the end of 
an hour he showed some signs of relenting, but the 
victory was not yet won. The parley still continued, 
and Kafulu resumed his pipe, whereupon Mr. Pratt 
gave him some tobacco, which he accepted without 
thanks. At the end of three hours certain arguments 
prevailed, and he produced some of Ow-bow's goods. 
Ow-bow remarked that that was not all, whereupon 
Kafulu promised to send everything, to deliver the sago, 
and also that he would not frighten the collectors any 
more. With this assurance they shook hands upon it 
and the party returned to camp. Two days after, the 
sago arrived, and in four days the whole of Ow-bow's 
possessions were returned. 



272 HOME OF THE BIRD OF PARADISE 

During the stay at Ekeikei an earthquake shock was 
experienced which shook the house violently. It was 
accompanied by a tremendous and oppressive heat with 
death-like stillness ; the skies were inky black, and 
there was a perfect deluge of rain, so heavy that it could 
without exaggeration be said to come down in bucket- 
fuls. Then the heavens opened with what seemed to be 
rivers of lightning, for the discharges resembled great 
main streams with thousands of fiery affluents, and all 
around the thunder crashed terrifically, seeming at times 
as if it were in the house. For three-quarters of an hour 
there was no cessation of the din. A tree just below the 
verandah was struck and split from top to bottom, but 
fortunately no one was injured. 

After the worst of the storm had passed, a fierce 
hurricane came, tearing up the valley which the camp 
faced. Its roaring was heard long before its force was 
felt, but beyond tearing off some of the thatch of one of 
the buildings no great harm was done, for with a view 
to such occurrences all the large trees in the vicinity 
had been felled. 

Swarms of wasps haunted the low bushes in this 
locality, and concealed themselves under the leaves so 
cunningly that the traveller did not perceive them until 
he was actually upon them. Their bodies are a dark 
yellowish brown. At the least disturbance they all rise 
together in a buzzing cloud and take vengeance. The 
sting is severe, but the pain fortunately does not last 
long. It dies out in six or seven minutes, leaving a red 
lump which gradually subsides. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE HOME OF THE BIRD OF PARADISE 

A JOURNEY to the coast with packages of specimens 
followed the settlement with Kafulu, and although it 
was not eventful, the one night spent at Bioto will 
always stand out vividly in Mr. Pratt's memoiy. At 
Bioto they put all their cases on board a canoe, and set 
out with two natives to navigate the overladen craft to 
Pokama. As they did not leave until late they were 
forced to spend the whole night in the creek. In their 
crazy vessel, weighed down almost to the water's edge, 
for she had only three inches of free-board, they lay 
close inshore, under dense mangrove trees. Sleep was 
impossible, for they were assailed by mosquitoes and 
other discomforts ; added to this they had to endure 
the stench of mud, the hoarse cry of the mound-builder, 
the clacking of myriads of bivalves as the tide receded, 
the incessant rain, the inky blackness of the night, 
and the unmistakable presence of innumerable croco- 
diles. Fortunately they did not know then that only a 
short time before, near the same place, two natives 
had had a desperate fight with a crocodile, which lifted 
one of them right out of their canoe ; the other fought 
the crocodile gallantly, and managed to get his com- 
panion back into the boat, when the saurian, nothing 
daunted, returned to the attack, and seized the poor 
fellow again, dismembering him. 

They reached Pokama, thence to Hall Sound, where 

they found the ketch St. Andrew about to sail for 

Thursday Island. A succession of calms was followed 

by a strong wind, which aided by a swift tide drove them 

s 273 



274 THE HOME OF 

on to a bad reef when about thirty miles from Thursday 
Island. Stone ballast was thrown out, and after 
bumping about for four hours, and making many unsuc- 
cessful attempts to get the boat off, losing an anchor 
and a chain in the process, they managed to get clear 
with the flood tide. Next night they got into Thursday 
Island with the loss of some sheets of copper. A sharp 
attack of fever prostrated both Mr. Pratt and his son 
Harry, but they were successful in getting their collec- 
tions despatched. Their return to Hall Sound was 
equally unfortunate, for a gale blew away their sails, and 
for three days they beat about in a heavy sea, not 
knowing exactly where they were, but eventually they 
succeeded in getting under the shelter of Yule Island 
in a disabled condition. 

The return journey to Ekeikei was preceded by the 
usual carrier difficulty, but after great trouble and much 
searching and persuasion an inadequate force was raised 
and Ekeikei reached in three days. Fresh trouble 
awaited Mr. Pratt, for German measles broke out and 
the sufferers proved anything but docile patients, for 
as soon as they became convalescent each wished to 
return to his own village, which of course would only 
have spread the disease. 

Mr. Pratt's son Harry, who was then only sixteen years 
of age, shortly afterwards made an adventurous journey 
alone to the Kebea, a district some distance in the 
interior among savages and cannibals. From Kebea 
he went north to Yo-ya-ka, which he described as a 
most remarkable place. The Papuan ridges, with their 
strangely perched villages, are not easy to describe. 
These ridges rise up almost to a razor edge, and the foot- 
way on the Yo-ya-ka ridge was certainly no wider than 
fifteen inches. This narrow strip of foothold followed 
the main street of the village, and on each side of it 
the houses were on supporting poles. The extreme 



THE BIRD OF PARADISE 275 

sharpness of the declivity on each side, of course, made 
the houses much higher on the side farthest from the 
road than on that facing it. As structures they were not 
much to boast of; there were about twenty of them 
and all were tumbledown. The people were preparing 
for a feast, and were strutting about in their feathers 
and paint. Some were alarmed at the white youth and 
called out " fi-fi," that is, magic. 

While here Harry heard a report that Ow-bow's 
brother had been killed, and this turned out to be true. 
The brother had taken a fancy to another man's wife, 
and according to native custom, was willing to pay for 
her. But to this the husband would not agree, and 
lying in wait killed and ate him. Compensation to the 
relatives of the murdered man was offered and at first 
refused. But after some palaver carried on from one 
ridge to the other the compensation, in the shape of a 
pig, was accepted, killed, and eaten, and so the incident 
was closed. 

Provisions had been very scarce for some time, and 
starvation stared the expedition in the face ; it was 
necessary that supplies should be brought from Ekeikei, 
or rebellion and desertion would soon follow. For this 
task Harry offered himself, taking with him a few 
carriers. But the path led through country which was 
in a state of great unrest ; moreover, it passed through a 
village, Madui, with so evil a reputation that it was only 
with difficulty the carriers could be induced to go. The 
outward journey was safely accomplished and the 
provisions obtained, but the return journey was not so 
happy. At Madui trouble awaited them. There had 
been a native fracas, a man had just been murdered, 
and the blood-lust was strong in the people, who, on 
Harry's arrival, demanded that he should give up one 
of his boys to be killed and eaten. But he, though well 
armed, had the wisdom not to make any parade of force, 



276 THE HOME OF 

and resorted to persuasion. After much argument he 
persuaded the Madui people to forgo their demands, but 
during the night, in the course of which another murder 
was committed, he kept the strictest watch, allowing 
himself not a wink of sleep. In the morning they got 
clear away, and reached the Kebea in safety. It says 
much for the pluck and resourcefulness of a boy of his 
age that he should have carried out so hazardous an 
enterprise to such a successful conclusion. 

Preparations were now made to leave the Kebea for 
Foula, a place fifteen miles further inland as the crow 
flies, but, of course, considerably more when traversed on 
foot. Amana, one of the villages on the route, was a most 
peculiar place, and like Yo-ya-ka built on an extremely 
narrow ridge, so narrow indeed that they could not pitch 
their fly-tent there but slept in a house, the front part of 
which overlooked a precipice. The house commanded 
a most lovely view far away into the valley, the slopes of 
which were covered with dense wood. The river could 
be seen flashing at intervals through the greenery ; it 
must have been fifteen hundred feet below, but the 
roar of the torrent rose with great distinctness. As the 
party approached the village the carriers suddenly put 
down all their loads and would not enter. On being 
asked why, they said that some time before the chief of 
Amana had killed one of their people. 

Mr. Pratt went in to make the acquaintance of this 
worthy. He was rather a personable character, quite 
bald, and with a very noble forehead, but, like most of 
the more degraded aborigines, he could not look the 
white man in the face. On hearing of Mr. Pratt's 
approach he became frightened and retreated to a tree- 
house, one of the most remarkable curiosities of New 
Guinea. In the village was a large tree, the trunk of 
which reached up about twenty feet, bare of branches, 
and then the main stem divided into a fork. Among the 



THE BIRD OF PARADISE 277 

branches were two platforms. A round ladder consisting 
of two uprights with rungs placed at an angle of at 
least sixty-jfive degrees led to the first. Above that was 
the second platform, forming the bottom of the house, 
which was reached by steps very narrow, but not so far 
apart as the steps of the lower ladder. The tree-house is 
not uncommon in New Guinea, but it is very exceptional 
to find two platforms. The uprights and ladders were 
made of bamboo, and the rungs were made of boughs 
cut anyhow with walo, a species of cane which grows to a 
length of twenty feet, and is used for lashings. Each 
cane is the size of a thick pencil, and has a spiky outer 
cover. This is peeled off when the cane is ripe, and it is 
then split, an operation requiring great dexterity, and 
one which can only be performed by the Papuans them- 
selves, for none but a native could split a twenty-foot 
cane cleanly down its entire length. 

The higher platform which supported the house 
measured about twelve feet by six feet ; it was made of 
bamboo cross-pieces, interlaced with bark. The roof 
was covered with grass, and the only aperture was one 
small door, over which the thatch came closely down. 
There was just room for a person to crawl in. 

Mr. Pratt had considerable difficulty in inducing the 
chief to leave his retreat, but at length he summoned up 
sufficient courage to come out and speak to him. 

There was a rather mysterious grave just outside the 
village at the point where the carriers put down their 
loads. This place, which for some reason or other was 
regarded as sacred, was surrounded by a low stockade, 
but no attempt was made to keep the enclosure, which 
was quite overgrown, in order, and nothing regarding 
its origin was known, for the Papuans are a people 
without a history. 

The people wore an ornament, an oval, highly-polished 
grey seed of a species of grass which grows at Amana. 



278 THE HOME OF 

The villagers wore the seeds on strings or singly in the 
hair. 

From the Kebea to Mafulu was a five days' journey 
along the most rugged, toilsome and difficult path. At 
one point one had to traverse a ridge which turned in a 
half-circle, and at the very top it was scarcely more than 
six inches wide, sheer precipice running down on each 
side. The dangers of the road were, however, somewhat 
compensated for by the magnificent view which one 
could enjoy from that point. The descent was very, 
very steep, especially the last portion of the road, where 
it descended abruptly to the creek. The members of the 
expedition had to hold on by roots and vegetation and 
to look most carefully after their footing, for a false step 
might have sent them down a precipice, falling sheer 
for eight hundred feet, and the marvel was how the 
carriers managed it with their heavy loads. They 
seemed, however, quite unconcerned, and took no 
notice of the dangers besetting them. When reached the 
bed of the creek was found to be full of boulders, and 
Mr. Pratt had the curiosity to wash out a few panfuls of 
gravel and found decided traces of gold. 

They ascended by way of one of the two villages 
known as Foula for four hours, the climb being all the 
way through dense forest, soaking with the humidity 
of the atmosphere. Even the hot sun seemed scarcely 
to affect the prevailing damp. The rocks were covered 
with lovely shaded begonias, ferns and trailing creepers, 
intermingled in richest profusion of golden tints. In the 
early morning the forest was alive with bird life. The 
trees were of strange magnificence, particularly the 
mountain pandanus with its aerial roots which cover an 
immense space, and all converge into one stem sixty feet 
above the ground, whence the trunk runs up perfectly 
straight. Everywhere around were tree ferns rising to 
thirty feet in height, and enormous lycopodiums with 



THE BIRD OF PARADISE 279 

leaves ten feet long. These luxuriant forms of vegeta- 
tion were thickly clustered upon the trees, and some of 
the masses must have been of enormous weight. They 
displayed a glorious profusion of scarlet, which had 
taken full possession of its supporting tree, for far above 
the domed mass of this superb parasite one could see 
occasionally large clusters of brilliant blossom here and 
there. Very beautiful, too, was a small fern with an 
exquisite iridescent blue on the upper surface of its leaf 
and a brilliant golden yellow beneath. Parrots great 
and small and white cockatoos with yellow crests flashed 
about resenting the intrusion on their privacy by 
tremendous screeching. Of animals but little was 
seen, as they are mostly arboreal and nocturnal. Mr. 
Pratt saw several tree kangaroos but failed to secure 
one. 

The village of Mafulu was very small and the people 
were very shy. It will be understood from what has been 
said above of the configuration of the ground that there 
was considerable difficulty in finding a suitable camping 
ground. But one was found and cleared, tents were 
pitched, and a huge fire lighted ; later on in the evening 
blankets were served out, for all, especially the natives, 
at such an altitude felt the difference in the temperature 
bitterly. Next day the camp proper was commenced, 
and a dwelling-house and collecting verandah erected. 
The carriers and collectors were somewhat nervous of 
the Mafulu people and left most of the work to Mr. 
Pratt and his son, who themselves would not have been 
surprised to see a spear hurtling through the air. How- 
ever, their chief discomfort was the humidity of the 
atmosphere and the annoyance of the leeches. Moths 
there were in plenty, and twelve different species of 
paradise birds, but very few butterflies. 

Food began to grow scarce ; the tinned provisions 
had been tampered with, and the party were thrown 



280 THE HOME OF 

back mainly on a diet of sweet potatoes and yams 
purchased from the Mafulu people, and a few bananas. 
The men constantly complained of the cold, but Mr. 
Pratt knew that it was fear of the Mafulu rather than 
dislike of the cold which prompted the grumbling. It 
was most annoying, as excellent scientific results were 
being effected, and admirable specimens being brought 
in. However, matters reached such a pass that a 
definite promise was given to the men that all should 
return in a week. 

The country round about was in a disturbed state, 
and although there were no actual threats, it was 
necessary for all to be strictly on the alert. The Kabadi 
people who traded with the Mafulu streamed through 
the camp, but apparently took no notice of anyone. 
The Mafulu paid constant visits and always brought 
their spears, but Mr. Pratt put an end to this by 
ordering that all weapons should be left outside the 
stockade, and that all nocturnal visitors should hail the 
camp and show a light. Provisions had now got so low 
that all were growing quite emaciated. An attempt was 
made at bird of paradise soup, but it was pronounced 
abominable. The men were getting into such a highly 
excitable state that nothing remained but to make 
preparations for a speedy departure. When all was 
nearly completed an uproar brought Mr. Pratt running 
from his tent to find two or three of the huts blazing 
furiously, and his own men looking on it as a huge joke. 
There was no doubt that they had deliberately fired the 
huts to hasten the departure. 

The return journey was accomplished as far as the 
Delava river without incident of any great moment, 
but Mr. Pratt found the stream in a terrible state. It 
was a horrible and uninviting flood to enter. It was full 
of tangled mangrove roots and treacherous with slimy 
ooze. The water was foul, mosquitoes abounded, and one 



THE BIRD OF PARADISE 281 

knew that it was a veritable fever-trap. It had to be 
crossed, however, the natives making a terrible splashing. 
For the most part they were wading up to their hips in 
water, picking their way as best they could across the 
tangled mangrove roots, and occasionally slipping down 
between them to a depth of two feet. For part of the 
way they had to swim. Three weeks were spent at 
Babooni, but here, although their surroundings were 
beautiful, and the result of the work accomplished 
highly successful, they were so far as living went no 
better off than they had been on the higher ground, 
and the staple food was still sweet potatoes. The finest 
of the birds of paradise abounded, also the bird-winged 
butterfly, with its beautiful green and velvet black wings, 
with brilliant golden fore wings, the under side of which 
is black. 

But scientific work cannot be done on sweet potatoes 
alone, so five men were sent to Ekeikei to replenish the 
larder ; but as five men cannot carry much, things were 
not much better. " Trade " too was running short, as 
the paying off of those Foula carriers who had wished 
to return home had depleted the stock. But nature 
provided them with one delicacy — the cabbage tree. 
The edible leaves grow on a small tree like a sycamore, 
and the manner of cooking is as follows : each leaf is 
plucked separately, and when a sufficient number has 
been got together they are tied up into neat packets, 
bound round in banana leaves and cane string. Then 
stones are collected and heated on a large wood fire, and 
on the top of the hot stones the bundles of cabbage are 
placed, and over them the natives lay more banana 
leaves to a depth of about two feet, and above all 
another layer of hot stones. In about an hour the 
cabbage is cooked, the outer wrapping is taken off, and 
the delicacy is served on a banana leaf or a dish. It is a 
perfect Godsend to the half-starved traveller. 



282 THE HOME OF 

From Babooni they returned to the Kebea, varying 
the route so as to include the village of Waley. One of 
the curiosities of this place was the spiders' web fishing- 
net. In the forest at this point huge spiders' webs, six 
feet in diameter, abounded. These were woven in a 
large mesh, varying from one inch square at the outside 
of the web to about one-eighth inch at the centre. The 
web was most substantial, and had great resisting power, 
a fact of which the natives were not slow to avail them- 
selves, for they have pressed into the service of man this 
spider, which is about the size of a small hazel-nut, with 
hairy, dark brown legs, spreading to about two inches. 
At the place where the webs are thickest they set up 
long bamboos bent over into a loop at the end. In a 
very short time the spider weaves a web on this most 
convenient frame, and the Papuan has his fishing-net 
ready to his hand. He goes down to the stream and 
uses it with great dexterity to catch fish of about one 
pound weight, neither the water nor the fish sufficing to 
break the mesh. The usual practice is to stand on a rock 
in a backwater where there is an eddy. There they 
watch for a fish, and then skilfully dip it up and throw 
it on the bank. 

Waley is also a great place for dancing, the festivals 
lasting for a week at a time. The time is taken up in 
feasting on roast pig by day and dancing by torchlight. 

On returning to Kebea Mr. Pratt was faced with the 
serious problem of getting down to the coast. He had 
a large collection on his hands, and " trade " to meet the 
charges of the carriers was none too plentiful. If the 
carriers were paid off at Ekeikei he would be cleaned out 
of the equivalent for ready cash, but if they would go 
down to Pokame on Hall's Sound matters would be all 
right. He allowed the idea to be disseminated and 
discussed throughout the camp, then called a conference. 
The most active objectors were the wives of those men 



THE BIRD OF PARADISE 288 

who showed a disposition to join the expedition. One 
woman especially, whom Mr. Pratt described as the 
worst woman he had met in Papua, and who was cor- 
dially disliked by both sexes on account of her vitriolic 
tongue, was a thorn in his flesh ; wherever she was she 
was sure to be the centre of a row of some sort or another. 
Gouba, her husband, tried persuasive methods, generally 
in the shape of billets of wood, to stem her flow of 
language, but in vain ; nothing but death could do 
that, and Mr. Pratt feared that the sorely tried husband 
might one day in a fit of anger adopt Henry the 
Eighth's plan. 

Mr. Pratt offered generous remuneration, and the 
conference ended satisfactorily. They now returned to 
Ekeikei, and on arrival there passed from the land of 
starvation to the land of abundance. But the carrier 
difficulty again arose. There were more stores at Ekeikei 
than there were men to carry them, so the only thing 
to be done was to take as much as possible to Epa, 
leaving the rest under a guard. Mr. Pratt depended 
on assistance from his old friend Mavai ; but he seemed 
likely to prove a broken reed. For some inexplicable 
reason he behaved very surlily, and refused all help, 
and it was only after great persuasion that he at last 
consented to give assistance. At Oo-fa-fa Mr. Pratt 
met with a nasty accident, for the cords of his hammock 
gave Avay, and for ten days afterwards he suffered great 
pain from the bruises. At Pokama he took leave of his 
followers, who showed genuine regret ; this was mutual, 
for in spite of occasional fits of refractoriness they had 
followed their white master cheerfully and faithfully. 

At Pokama they embarked on board a vessel heavily 
laden with sandal-wood. They broke a very uncomfort- 
able journey on the coast with the intention of walking 
to Manu-Manu, forty miles further south, as they 
wished to do some exploring in the neighbourhood 



284 HOME OF THE BIRD OF PARADISE 

along the coast. During their journey they saw one of 
the most extraordinary sights of all their travels — many 
thousands of soldier-crabs, traversing the sandy beach 
in detached, regularly ordered bodies that moved 
evidently by the signal of some common commander. 
These " armed battalions " stretched for miles, and no 
matter what figure they assumed, the dressing, so to 
speak, of the outer ranks was perfect. The advance was 
fairly rapid, and was always towards the sea. The 
individual crab is small and has no shell ; the body is 
of a dark fawn colour, exactly resembling the wet sand 
of the beach. 

They reached Manu-Manu safely, and from there 
went by canoe to Port Moresby ; from thence they 
sailed to Cooktown, and after a stay of three weeks in 
that place, went down to Sydney and came home by the 
White Star Line. 

[The information contained in these chapters has 
been derived from Mr. A. E. Pratt's Two Years Among 
New Guinea Cannibals, by kind permission of the 
author.] 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

The term " Blackbirders " was applied to those vessels 
employed in recruiting native labour from the South 
Sea Islands for the plantations in Australia, chiefly the 
sugar plantations of Queensland. The natives were 
decoyed or forced on board these vessels, the hatches 
were clapped on and the unhappy Kanaka had to serve 
a term of years of literal slavedom on the plantations, 
rewarded by a collection of tawdry articles of little 
value, the ruffians who provided the labour receiving so 
much per head for their share, a sum which made the 
risks and labour worth undertaking. The growing 
abuses, however, created such a feeling of hostility on 
the part of the Islanders that no white man's life was 
safe among tribes never noted for their trustworthiness, 
so the Government stepped in and put a check on the 
malpractices, and refused to grant a licence to all 
recruiting vessels which did not carry a Government 
Agent, that is, a Government official who should look 
after and safeguard the interests of the natives, and see 
that they quite understood what they were undertaking. 
The Government Agent had full powers over the ship so 
far as order and discipline went ; he must be a man of 
determined character, with a quick and sure eye, and a 
ready finger on the trigger of his rifle for his own self- 
defence, for the Kanakas* were treacherous by nature, 
and did not take the trouble to discriminate between 

* Kanaka is a Hawaiian word denoting a native of any Australian 
island, and = j» man* 

286 




The Chief of Santa Cruz 



The disc on his chest, cut from c!am-she!l, can only be worn by chiefs. He wears a green stone 
through the cartilage of his nose. And the ring suspended from the lobe of his ear is cut from 
tortoise-shell. (J. W. Beattie, Hobart.) 



TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 287 

friend and foe if either of them possessed anything which 
took the fancy, or when roused by passion. 

Recruiting vessels bore at their mainmast-head a 
black ball, the official emblem showing that they were 
duly licensed c The recruiting boat with the recruiter on 
board approached the island first ; he was followed by 
the Government Agent in a " covering " boat to keep 
a sharp eye on both parties. Mr. Rannie's interest and 
sympathies had been aroused by the account of the death 
of a friend of his who was treacherously murdered while 
acting as Government Agent, and he offered his services 
to the Queensland Government, although the risks he ran 
were painted in vivid colours. Rannie's first vessel was the 
Heron, a leaky old tub, but a good sailer. After touching 
at several islands and meeting with only moderate luck, 
they reached Bougainville, the largest of the Solomon 
group, but a very heavy surf prevented them from 
landing. On the shore there appeared to be two tribes 
assembled, but they did not seem to be on very amicable 
terms, as they held aloof from one another. They were 
all heavily armed with very long bows and sheaves of 
arrows. Besides these weapons some carried spears, 
and each man had suspended from his shoulder a 
tomahawk, club, or heavy wooden sword. The tribes 
were distinguished by the colour of their head-dress. 
This was composed of a hat exactly resembling an egg- 
shaped lamp-globe, and of similar size, made of basket- 
work, those of one party being red, and those of the 
other white. The opening was narrow, and through it 
they thrust their mop of hair, with a jaunty tilt to one 
side. Pulling along the coast they came to a smooth 
part, and were able to approach nearer the islanders. 
After a lot of persuasion they were induced to approach 
nearer to each other and to the boats. Bartering was 
about to commence when a huge wave caught the 
mate's boat and hurled it on the beach. The natives 



288 TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

were in two minds, whether to loot or help, but the 
mate's crew had secured their arms and leaped on shore 
in time ; besides, the rifles of the " covering " boat 
commanded all the crowd, and the promise of trade 
goods induced them to a better frame of mind, and the 
boat was soon afloat. But another great sea caught it 
and turned it completely over high on the beach with 
the crew underneath. 

A terrible scene ensued. The natives made a mad 
rush for the boat and dragged it high on the sand, and 
fought savagely for the axes, tomahawks, and knives 
that were lying in from two to three feet of water. Two 
natives would be struggling for an axe ; one would 
manage to free his arm with the axe aloft, and the next 
instant it would be brought crash, down through the 
skull of the other unfortunate one. Several could be 
seen fighting and slashing each other with the long 
knives and butchers' knives as they rolled over and over 
each other in the water. Those ashore along the fringe of 
scrub took up the fight, and a general battle ensued. 
The arrows were flying in the air like showers of hail. 

Presently ♦a large body of men charged out from the 
scrub on those nearest the boat, and making a wild dash 
among the bowmen of the red hats mowed them down 
with tomahawks and hard-wood swords before the 
red-hats had time to unsling their weapons. The red- 
hats then took to flight, but were followed by the 
white-hats with showers of arrows until the bush gave 
them shelter. A couple of volleys over the heads of those 
natives who still showed fight and were reluctant to 
leave their prey soon cleared them off, and with 
considerable difficulty the boat was dragged down to the 
water and towed to the vessel's side, a good deal the 
worse for wear, as most of the metal parts had been 
stripped by the natives, and even some of the copper 
rivets started. 




(U c 



O c " 
o.H 

:5 .2 5 



b/j 



o 



I 



,U.-r">^-H 



TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 289 

On reaching St. John's Island, a beautiful spot 
inhabited by a merry and intelligent people, the 
recruiters were nicely taken in by the " innocent " 
native. Recruits were numerous and business was brisk. 
The trade presents were made up and duly handed over 
to the relatives of the recruits, who then stepped into the 
boats. But when they had rowed about half a mile 
from the shore, they gave one shout, and in a body 
threw themselves into the water, diving repeatedly to 
avoid the expected bullets. When they reached the 
shore they lost no time in making for the scrub. Rannie 
was of opinion that this was by no means the first time 
this game had been played in order to obtain the 
presents always made to the recruits and handed over to 
their relatives. 

Having reached the Caen or Kaan Islands, Rannie 
was one day seated in the stern of his boat, which was 
backed on to the beach, when a hoary-headed chief 
approached, and after depositing a basket in the boat 
asked for some tobacco. As he was lighting his pipe 
Rannie noticed a suspicious-looking stream trickling 
towards his feet. He opened the basket and to his 
intense disgust saw two severed human heads. He 
flung the basket and its ghastly contents on to the sand, 
to the great delight of all the assembled natives, who 
screamed with laughter at his expressions of disgust. 
The hoary-headed sinner, with a sardonic grin, picked 
up the two heads, impaled them on two poles, and stuck 
them up in the sand abreast of the boat. The inter- 
preter said that they were the heads of a young man and 
woman who wanted to run away and go to Queensland. 
The young woman was the property of the old man. 
The previous night the two eloped and hid in the bush 
to watch for a chance to get away in the recruiter's 
boats. The old fellow stalked them in the early morning, 
and taking them by surprise speared them both. Cutting 



290 TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

their heads off he brought them with him as tokens of 
his prowess. 

The natives of these islands are terrible thieves, and 
very dexterous at picking up any " unconsidered trifle " 
with their toes, which they conceal until a propitious 
time arrives for removing it. On one occasion Rannie 
was talking with a native who was seated on the gun- 
wale of his boat. He noticed the man pick up a toma- 
hawk with his toes, pass it up behind his back and drop 
it on the sand, when he concealed it with sand scraped 
together with his other foot. Rannie finished his 
conversation, and taking out his revolver made a 
pretence of dusting it with his pocket-handkerchief, but 
casually pointing the muzzle at the man's chest. He 
then asked him politely to pick the weapon up for him 
as it must have accidentally slipped over the side. The 
man did so, but his chagrin was so comical that the 
surrounding crowd, who were thoroughly enjoying the 
little comedy, shrieked with laughter. The man went 
off with an ugly look on his face. Ten minutes later as 
the boat was rounding a wooded promontory a spear 
whizzed out from the scrub just grazing Rannie's neck 
— a present, no doubt, from the impenitent thief. 

Sailing thence to the Gerrit Denny group they 
encountered a weird-looking crowd of men on the beach 
with their faces all whitewashed, their ribs all painted 
white, and with white stripes drawn down their legs, 
looking like a mob of animated skeletons. They were 
dancing a horrible dance which the boatmen said was the 
" dance of the devil-devil." Nothing would induce them 
to approach closer, as they said they were already too 
close. As they spoke, the dancers suddenly began to twirl 
slings round their heads, and stones hummed past or into 
the boat, cutting and wounding most of the occupants. 

Rannie's next trip was on board the Emily brig, and 
while touching at Tanna, one of the New Hebrides 



TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 291 

group, he narrowly escaped with his Hfe. Knowing there 
was a deep fresh-water hole a short distance from the 
beach he determined to enjoy the luxury of a swim, 
accompanied by one white man and a native boatman. 
The latter had a dip in the water, and as he left to return 
to the boats he laughingly warned him against bushmen. 
He had not been gone more than two or three minutes 
when a crashing in the bush close to the banks of the 
pool caused Rannie to look up, when he saw a red- 
painted savage in the act of taking aim full in his face 
with the muzzle of his rifle within three or four yards of 
his head. Instinct caused him to duck under water 
just as the fellow fired. When he raised his head he 
was in a cloud of smoke, and just caught a glimpse of his 
would-be assassin disappearing through the bushes. He 
scrambled out, and picking up his revolver sent half a 
dozen shots into the bush at random. The bushman 
was headed off by one of the white crew and the Tanna 
boatman, and sent to his last account. 

After touching at several islands the Emily reached 
Mai, one of the Shepherd group, and Rannie noticed 
that there was some excitement as every one was armed 
with a rifle, and each one had his left eye surrounded 
with a black patch of plumbago. He found they had a 
fine-looking young fellow bound to a tree. They were 
told that he had, on sighting the vessel the previous 
evening, eloped with the young chief's wife, their 
intention being to go to Queensland. The young fellow 
had been caught but the woman was still at large. Now 
it was their intention to hang him. Rannie offered 
a large amount in trade to try and buy him off, most of 
the natives urging the chief to accept the offer, but he 
would not give way. He gave an order, and six men 
stepped out, and firing a volley shot the poor prisoner 
in the presence of all. It was said the woman would 
share a similar fate when caught. 



292 TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

The reception of the Emily at Espiritu Santo, 
commonly known as Santo, in the New Hebrides, was 
not too cordial. Physically the natives were fine, 
strapping fellows, but were inclined to be saucy, and the 
Emily's crew were warned against them. This warning 
was justified, for on the morning succeeding their 
arrival Rannie was returning to the vessel when he was 
hailed from the shore and saw a man waving a green 
branch of leaves, and they pulled straight towards him, 
when he disappeared. They stopped and saw the 
shining barrels of several rifles here and there among 
the rocks — an ambush was lying in wait for them. The 
natives scrape all the japanning or browning off their 
guns, and burnish them up to look like silver. The 
crew decided to run no risks and returned to the vessel. 
They had just sat down to lunch when the skylight came 
rattling down about their ears in shivered glass and 
splinters of timber, while volley after volley of rifle shots 
resounded from the shore, and bullets were pattering 
about the ship and whistling through the awnings. 

Rannie hurried on deck and found recruits and crew 
taking shelter behind hatches, masts, and deckhouse^ 
The captain was lying unwell in his hammock slung oi 
the boom, and unable to get out without assistance. 
A rifle bullet had gone right through his hammock within 
a quarter of an inch of his head. Rannie lifted him out_ 
of his hammock, and placed him on the deck away froi 
any danger. By this time the recruits and crew had got 
over their first scare, and were arming themselves an( 
demanding to be led on shore to fight the Santo men. A^ 
the vessel was not more than a hundred yards from th( 
shore the position was a serious one. It was impossible 
to get away without exposing the crew to almost certaii 
death. If they attempted to get the anchor up the^ 
would be shot down at the windlass, and if they weni 
aloft to loose the sails they could be picked off one b; 



TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 293 

one. The only course was to attack the natives ashore 
and drive them from their position. Accordingly most 
of the crew and all the available recruits were put in the 
boats and a dash was made for the shore. One volley 
was fired into them, and the boats run on to the 
beach, and each man, with rifle and any other weapon he 
had, charged into the bush. The natives broke and fled. 

The attacking party followed them up about two 
miles, until they came to their village. The natives did 
not make a stand even there, but fled right through. 
Rannie, however, called a halt. The only being in the 
village was a little girl about five or six years of age. 
She was crying bitterly, but they placed her in the fork 
of a tree out of harm's way and Rannie gave her his silk 
neckerchief to amuse her. There were a number of fine 
large tusker boars tied up to trees, and these the crew 
were shooting and tomahawking. These pigs would be a 
great loss to their owners, as they were more highly 
prized than any other possession. 

Before leaving Rannie took care that the little girl 
they left behind was quite safe from any injury. They 
returned through the yam plantations, cutting down the 
yam vines and banana trees, and on arrival at the beach 
they piled all the canoes they could find in three large 
heaps and set fire to them. The lesson they got was a 
severe one but wholesome, and the offenders themselves 
afterwards confessed that they were entirely to blame 
and deserved the punishment meted out to them. 

The voyage of the Emily was brought to an untimely 
end by the death of the captain, who was buried on 
one of the islands, for as the licence had been taken 
out in his name nothing remained to be done but to 
return to Queensland with those recruits that had been 
secured. 

The next vessel to which Rannie was appointed was 
the Flora^ and the first place of any particular interest 



294 TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

at which they called was Malikolo or MallicoUo, an 
island of the New Hebrides group. The firing of their 
cannon brought crowds down to the beach. They were 
an ugly-looking lot, with faces and bodies hideously 
daubed with paint of various colours, and many of them 
wore grotesque and frightful masks. Their woolly heads 
were elaborately decorated with feathers and flowers, 
while their limbs were adorned with bracelets and 
bangles of many kinds. Some of these were made 
from wood, pearl-shell, and turtle-shell, but the most 
important and valuable were the natural tusks of the 
boars. Great care and attention were paid to the 
growth of these tusks. To encourage growth and 
perfect shape the boars were tethered up for years to 
prevent them grinding their tusks down. In many 
instances the tusks not only made a complete circle, 
but re-entered the jaw again, passing right through the 
bone and out again. In this island a man's rank and 
social position were determined by the number of pigs he 
owned, and the number of tusk boars he could afford 
to kill at a feast. There is, besides the ordinary kind, a 
rare species greatly prized. It is perfectly bald, with 
a head like a greyhound, and a smooth bluish skin. 
When a man wishes to " talk pig " with a friend he tows 
a favourite specimen along by a cord attached to a 
foreleg, whilst his wife follows behind with sections of 
bamboo containing water with which she continuously 
sprinkles the delicate animal's back lest he should be 
inconvenienced by the heat. With the MaHkolo man. 
his pigs rank higher than his wives or daughters. In 
fact the women are mere degraded drudges and] 
slaves. 

The bushmen had Snider rifles and bows with deadlyj 
poisoned arrows. The arrows were made of strong reed,j 
tipped with about three inches of human bone, tapering 
off to a fine needle-point and steeped in decayin| 



TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 293 

human flesh, besides being plastered thickly with a 
composition of human flesh and vegetable poison. They 
also carried long spears, the points being carved human 
leg bones. Clubs, wooden swords, and tomahawks they 
had in plenty. 

Some of the returns, or Kanakas returning to their 
homes, on board were anxiously waiting to hear what 
kind of reception they might expect from their fellow- 
islanders and relatives, who were waiting on the beach. 
Some of these expressed a desire to go on board and 
welcome the returns in person, to which no objection 
was made. But when Rannie arrived on board, to his 
great surprise he saw the only female return they had 
volubly haranguing the men. She had discarded her 
European dress, and was costumed merely in a belt from 
which was looped both in front and behind a long roll of 
fancj^ print and calico, so draped as to leave her 
untrammelled in the event of fight or flight. A second 
belt round her waist contained a loaded revolver and 
about fifty rounds of cartridges, while over her shoulder 
and across her breast she carried a bandolier of cartridges 
for the Snider rifle which she was nursing in the hollow 
of her left arm. An emancipated Malikolo woman ! 
She told the story of her grievance to Rannie and it was 
romantic enough to satisfy anyone. 

She was the daughter of a chief, and on his death was 
sold to a headman of mature years who wished to make 
her one of his wives. But she would have none of him ; 
her fancy was fixed on a younger lover, with whom she 
arranged to elope to Australia by the aid of a recruiting 
vessel. Her owner disapproved of this and with his 
brother and some followers set out in pursuit of the 
erring couple. The chase continued for a week, when 
they were overtaken and shots were fired, and the young 
lover was wounded in the side. They struggled on, 
however, but the young man grew weak from loss of 



296 TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

blood, and they were brought to bay. The pursuers 
came on, the chief leading, followed by his brother. The 
young woman waited until her would-be husband was 
within sure range, then shot him dead, the lover at the 
same time shooting the brother, but a moment after- 
wards he was himself struck with a bullet from one of 
the other pursuers, and fell with a groan. The young 
woman bounded away, for she could do no more, and 
making her way to the shore, saw, to her great joy, a 
vessel lying at anchor. Wading breast-high into the 
water she waved a branch, and was taken on board the 
vessel, one from Queensland, where she was conveyed 
and lived for some years. 

Next morning the boat was manned and the returns 
rowed ashore. Into the same boat stepped the young 
Amazon, still holding her rifle. On reaching the shore 
she walked up to a crowd of women huddled together 
like sheep, and demanded to know the fate of her lover. 
They made evasive and contradictory replies, so, finally 
coming to the conclusion that she was being deceived, 
she opened the floodgates of her wrath and poured on 
them, both women and men, a torrent of vituperation 
and invective which so damped the spirit of the meeting 
that it was evident no business could be done so long as 
a Malikolo young woman holding such very advanced 
ideas trod the deck of the Emily, The vessel cruised 
about the neighbourhood for some days, but whenever it 
was known that the " fighting lady " was on board no 
recruits were obtained. She was eventually landed at 
Malo by her own choice, as she had " chummed " in with 
a return, a native of that island. r^ I 

At Valpay, where they landed the last of the returns, 
Rannie received a pressing invitation to join in a pig- 
hunt which had been arranged before the arrival of the 
vessel, and next morning, equipped with a rifle and 
short sword-bayonet he joined the pig-hunters in the 




Malayta Spearman 

The spears are barbed, and are used both in throwing and thrusting. The armlets and nose ring 
are cut from the gigantic clamshell. Round his forehead is a string of white cowrie-shells. The 
broad belt round his waist is native shell money woven together. (J. W. Beattie, Hobart.) 



TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 297 

village. The party consisted of about fifty men and boys, 
some of whom had rifles, and others carried bows and 
arrows. Many of them were also armed with spears, 
made of very hard wood, having for a butt a human 
thigh-bone. The majority carried a long-handled 
fighting tomahawk suspended from the right shoulder. 
A party of men and boys had gone in front to act as 
beaters. After a walk of about four or five miles the 
chief called a halt and ordered them to spread out in 
extended order along the hill-side. Then he fired his 
rifle as a signal to the beaters, and almost immediately 
the row started in the distance. Shots were fired, 
drums were beaten, and conch shells blown ; and 
howling, yelling, and whooping, on came the beaters. 
Then in a few minutes the sound was heard as of the 
rushing of a storm, and soon the grunting and snorting 
and squealing of a great mob of swine. 

Rannie made for a large tree, and was soon astride of 
a huge bough about four feet from the ground. The 
pigs were soon around, under, and racing past the tree. 
Pigs seemed everywhere. The noise and din were 
deafening. Men started at first shooting in all directions, 
while from his vantage post Rannie kept pumping lead 
into the mob of swine with his Winchester rifle. After a 
time the natives dropped their guns, and with their long- 
handled tomahawks started to slash and hamstring the 
pigs as they attempted to rush by. The antics of the 
natives were most amusing, and their agility in leaping 
about and using their tomahawks was wonderful. It 
often caused roars of laughter as, in leaping in order to 
avoid one pig a man would frequently drop right on the 
top of another. 

When the rush was nearly over a tremendous big- 
tusk boar brought up the rear, heroically trying to 
defend his herd. Some of the beaters had wounded him, 
as bloody froth was falling from his mouth. He kept 



298 TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

stopping and grunting and snarling in their direction. 
When he was close to the tree in which Rannie was 
perched, a native ran in and tried to spear him, but only 
wounded him and made him more infuriated. With a 
savage grunt he turned on the native and charged him, 
and he, poor unfortunate, in his endeavour to get out of 
the way, tripped over one of the roots of the tree and 
fell. In a second the boar was upon him, and with one 
of his great tusks ripped him open. The impetus with 
which he was going carried the brute a few yards past 
where the man lay. He turned and was coming back 
to renew the attack when a well-planted bullet from 
Rannie's Winchester brought him down. The poor 
man was a ghastly sight and had a wound about seven 
or eight inches in length. His comrades soon covered 
the wound with a mud plaster, and carried him down to 
the village on an improvised litter, where Rannie sewed 
up the wound. He eventually recovered. 

After leaving Valpay the Flora touched at several 
islands and cast anchor at Santa Cruz, or Nitendi, one of 
the Santa Cruz Islands. The vessel was immediately 
surrounded by canoes, and the natives were soon 
swarming all over the decks, scaring the recruits and 
returns into the rigging with any weapon they could lay 
hands on. The natives of this island have always borne 
an evil reputation for theft and treachery, so Rannie 
ordered the crew to cease ship's work and station them- 
selves in the best positions for defence. So persistent 
was their pilfering and such a menace was their number, 
and so great was the uproar that all gave a sigh of relief 
when the Flora heaved anchor and the last canoe was 
left behind. It is a curious fact that although the 
natives of Santa Cruz are, to all appearance, so physi- 
cally well made and fit, when transported to Queensland 
they died off in such numbers that the Government 
prohibited recruiting from that island. 



TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 299 

Leaving Santa Cruz the Flora shaped her course for 
Malay ta, one of the Solomon group, and most notorious 
for the blood-thirstiness of its natives, and cast anchor 
in Qui Harbour, just sighting at a distance the Young 
Dick sailing put of Sinerago Harbour. They were soon 
boarded by natives, who informed Rannie that the same 
morning the Young Dick had been attacked by natives, 
and that there had been a big fight in which some white 
men and many blacks had been killed. One man who 
spoke some English said that by now the Sinerago men 
would regret their action, and that no doubt many 
would wish to leave the island to escape the probable 
visit of a man-of-war, and offered himself as interpreter. 

After cautioning the captain to be on his guard, and 
having armed the vessel's crew with Santa Cruz bows 
and poisoned arrows, the boats were manned and set out 
for Sinerago. The interpreter who accompanied the 
crews seemed nerVous and excited, and roused Rannie' s 
suspicions, so he was informed that the slightest 
treacherous movement on his part would result in a 
bullet being put through him. At Sinerago they saw a 
number of men under the trees at the mouth of the 
creek, but unaccompanied by women or children — 
always a sign of hostility. The recruiter did not like the 
look of things, and asked the interpreter his opinion. 
He advised a retreat as he said the men would fight, but, 
against his wishes, Rannie backed his boat into the shore, 
determined to have an interview with the natives. He 
informed them that they were recruiting for Queensland. 
Their spokesman then said that he thought several of his 
countrymen wished to go to Queensland, and turning 
round to his companions began talking to them in an 
undertone. Just then Rannie noticed that one of the 
natives wore a long gold chain with a pendant locket 
which he at once recognised as belonging to an intimate 
friend of his, Popham by name. At that moment the 



300 TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

interpreter shouted " Look out ! " and threw himself 
to the bottom of the boat. All ducked in time to escape 
a flight of arrows fired from a crowd of savages under 
a large tree. Immediately all the rifles were emptied 
into the crowd, and both crews leapt ashore and opened 
fire on the natives, who were now flying helter-skelter for 
the scrub. Rannie recovered the chain, which he 
supposed had been stolen in the attack on the Young 
Dick, but he subsequently learnt the particulars of the 
tragedy which accompanied the theft. There was 
obviously no chance now of doing any recruiting in that 
quarter, so the boats returned to the ship, and the 
interpreter was dismissed with a substantial present, 
evidently glad to get away with a whole skin, for there 
was no doubt he was deep in the plot. 

Next day a fine lot of young fellows came on board 
and expressed their desire to recruit for Queensland, 
the only stipulation being that the vessel should sail 
without delay, and to this no objection was made. 
Before leaving, Rannie discovered the reason of this 
desire to leave their native shores : these young men 
had been participators in the attack on the Young Dick^ 
and had no desire to await the searching investigations 
which would surely follow, backed by the presence of a 
man-of-war, and so thought they would be safer in 
Queensland than in Sinerago. 

The vessel next made for Urassey, the stronghold of 
the chief Quisooleae. It is a small island surrounded by 
a high wall from eight to twelve feet in thickness, all 
built of stone. The only access to the island is gained 
by two narrow entrances wide enough only to admit the 
passage of a whale-boat or large canoe, and each of 
these entrances is guarded by a heavy portcullis. From 
this stronghold Quisooleae sallied forth and periodically 
levied blackmail and harried the adjoining coasts. 
Quisooleae's father had been a renegade and fugitive 



TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 301 

from his own people, who had taken refuge on this small 
island of Urassey, and had gradually gathered around 
him all the outlaws he could get from any or every tribe. 
They fortified themselves on this small island, and when 
they had gained sufficient strength in numbers, they 
started on a career of pillage, piracy, and murder. Their 
numbers increased so rapidly that in a very short space 
of time Quisooleae could lead such a following that he 
was recognised as the most powerful and dreaded chief- 
tain on or around Malayta. These daring robbers and 
marauders soon found wives, and the breeding of 
cannibal robbers and pirates went on apace at Urassey. 
No doubt these same savages were responsible for the 
loss of many a fine vessel bound for China and the East 
which has been posted " missing " at Lloyds. One of 
the recognised routes to China runs close past the east 
coast of Malayta, and dead calms there lasting for days 
are of frequent occurrence. A vessel becalmed there 
would become an easy prey to an attack from a number 
of the large war canoes of Malayta, each of them carrying 
from fifty to one hundred men. There is ample proof 
that such occurrences have happened. 

After touching at Savo, the centre of the head- 
hunters of the Pacific, the Flora sailed for a village in 
Wanderer Bay where they had always been welcomed, 
but found a scene of desolation. No living beings were 
to be seen, but the headless corpses which littered the 
ground, and the charred remains of huts, showed that 
the head-hunters had been at their fiendish work ; even 
the coco-nut palms had been hacked down. As the 
vessel was leaving the bay they saw the Fearless and 
hove to. From her they learnt the particulars of the 
attack and brutal massacre on the Young Dick and of 
the death of Rannie's intimate friend, who was literally 
hacked to pieces. 

The end of this voyage nearly proved the end of the 



302 TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

Flora, for she ran on a reef, but being evenly balanced, 
with deep water under her bows and stern they got a 
see-saw motion on her by running the recruits from one 
end to the other, so that she slid into deep water and 
arrived safely in port. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

RanniE*s next appointment was to the Madeline, a 
staunch httle vessel, but an evil fate overtook her. 
After calling at several islands they reached Erromango, 
the scene of so many a martyr's sacrifice, but how 
changed from the time of the Rev, John Williams and 
the Gordons ; treachery, blood-thirstiness, and vile 
superstition have yielded to the unremitting efforts and 
unsparing self-sacrifice of devoted Christian teachers, 
and the natives are now an industrious and law-abiding 
community. They were enabled to do a good turn for 
Dr. Robertson, while here. He wished to convey the 
material for a new church to the other side of the island, 
but with the means at his disposal this meant laborious 
transport over a mountain, or a voyage in small boats 
round a dangerous coast. The captain of the Madeleine 
at once offered to transport the material. But after 
beating about for four days they were driven back 
by a storm, much to the Doctor's regret. The second 
attempt, however, proved successful, and the goods 
were all safely dehvered. 

Tongoa, one of the New Hebrides group, was reached 
on a pleasant April evening ; the anchor was dropped, 
the sky was scanned, and all seemed calm and secure. 
But about midnight the captain rushed into Rannie's 
cabin and shouted to him to come on deck as they were 
in the midst of a hurricane. No sooner had Rannie 
reached the deck than the vessel struck, stern first, 
with a terrific crash which wrenched the wheel and the 
steering-gear from the rudder-post and sent them 

303 



304 TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

smashing through the wall of his cabin on to the bunk 
which he had just vacated. The scene was appalling. 
Great seas tumbled over the starboard bulwarks, and 
soon shattered them to matchwood. The native 
passengers, up to their waists in water, hung on to any- 
thing they could seize. The rain came down in sheets 
which almost obliterated everything beyond a foot or 
two ; blinding flashes of lightning split the darkness while 
the thunder kept up a constant deafening roar. The 
flashes revealed land about a hundred yards away with a 
chaotic mass of spuming water leaping and churning in 
between. The captain called for a volunteer to carry 
a line ashore. A native named McKenzie responded, 
and holding the line in his hand he leaped in, but soon 
the strain on the rope relaxed and it was drawn back. 
Rannie next offered his services, and his own native 
servant, a stalwart merry young man, known as Fathead, 
together with a recruit, offered to accompany him. A 
few valuables belonging to the captain and the mate 
were fastened round his waist, to be forwarded to their 
wives in case the vessel went to pieces before the rope 
could be secured. The line was fastened to the centre 
of a broom-stick, and the three men plunged overboard. 
The struggle was awful, but the final one when the beach 
was reached was the worst. Where the surf thundered 
on the sand Rannie could retain his hold no longer, and 
he signed to his companions to leave him and get ashore 
if they could ; his senses began to leave him ; he was 
dashed more than once on the steep sandy beach, vainly 
endeavouring to dig his fingers and toes into the sand, 
but the backwash seized him each time and swept him 
out choking and almost insensible among the breakers. 
The fight was nearing an end when strong hands seized 
him, and he was dragged clear of the water, and he 
heard the voice of Fathead exclaiming, " You no dead 
yet, Government," and a burst of hearty laughter. 




o 

e4 V, 



C^ -^ 



< t 



o ^ 



TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 305 

The two men had made the hne fast to the root of a tree, 
and then had come to search for him. As they hauled 
on the hne they could hear above the din of the storm 
the cheers of those on board. The life-line proper was 
secured and the passengers were rapidly pulled ashore. 
But when half of them had been transferred a huge 
sea lifted the vessel clear over the reef on which she had 
struck, and crashed her down close to the shore. But 
although this rendered the task of saving the others 
much easier it quite destroyed all hope of saving the 
vessel. They discovered that they had been wrecked 
below the Mission Station on Tongoa. This, however, 
was no guarantee that they would not be attacked by 
natives, so, when the morning broke, they set to work 
with a will to get ashore what stores they could to form 
a barricade against a possible attack. The natives 
proved friendly, for Rannie had once done them a good 
turn, which they had not forgotten. The Chance, which 
was wrecked there a short time previously, had a 
different reception, for the missionary only with great 
difficulty succeeded in saving the lives of the crew. 

After erecting tents and shelters it was arranged that 
the captain and the white crew should take the last 
remaining boat and try to get help from Port Sandwich, 
Malikolo Island, while Rannie and the others remained 
where they were. A week afterwards a French vessel 
arrived, and a satisfactory agreement was made by 
which the returns were to be landed on their own 
islands. The skipper, however, was an irascible, 
tyrannous and cruel man, and there was constant 
friction, so much so that Rannie refused to ratify the 
agreement with the French company to whom the 
vessel belonged, on their arrival at Port Sandwich. 
This brought an abject apology from the skipper, and 
a reformation in his manner so far as Rannie and his 
party were concerned. There was an eccentric character 



806 TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

named Martin, otherwise " Pirate " Martin, cruising 
about in command of a vessel, whose eccentricity 
reached the point of lawlessness, but whose good nature 
and kindly disposition secured him friends wherever 
he went. He was, moreover, a splendid shot with rifle 
and revolver. Happening to anchor in the same port 
the Frenchman had the temerity to insult " Pirate " 
Martin by hauling up a small pig to the main masthead 
with a whisky bottle tied to its neck. This drew Martin's 
fire, and a bullet hummed by the skipper's head, who 
lost no time in diving into his cabin. A second shot 
killed the pig, and a third broke the whisky bottle ; 
then a hail came from Martin demanding that the 
skipper should be brought on deck. But that worthy 
had no desire to share with the pig the bullets from 
Martin's rifle, and yelled out orders from his cabin to 
clap on all sail and get out of Martin's range. It may be 
well to state that Martin had no desire to hurt the little 
Frenchman, but he had every desire to give him a good 
fright — and he succeeded. 

Later on, during this voyage, Rannie had a severe 
attack of fever, and to do the little Frenchman justice 
he did the best he could for the patient. The vessel 
anchored at Port Sandwich and the skipper went ashore 
early in the morning, for Martin's ship was anchored in 
the same bay. Presently a cheery voice hailed the ship, 
and " Pirate " Martin made his appearance. He was 
shocked at Rannie's condition, and rummaged about 
trying to find proper " tucker," and incidentally appro- 
priating such articles as took his fancy. Not finding 
what he wanted he bustled off to his own vessel and soon 
returned with meat extract and other suitable prepara- 
tions and viands. These visits Martin repeated, and 
proved himself the soul of kindness and consideration. 
He and the skipper encountered each other on shore, when 
the Frenchman offered a profuse apology for the insult 



TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 807 

given, but not before Martin had put a bullet through 
his pith helmet at thirty yards distance while he was 
talking to the French manager. Rannie was transferred 
to the shore, and thanks to Martin's unremitting care 
and kindness, and the attention shown him by the 
manager of the French company, he made a speedy 
return to health, and finally returned to Australia by 
the old cruiser Diamond, in charge of the whole ship's 
crew, boats' crews and recruits from the wreck of the 
Madeleine, Rannie had the proud satisfaction of know- 
ing that of all that company with the exception of the 
man who tried to swim ashore with the line not a single 
life had been sacrificed, not even that of the ship's cat. 
Considering the dangers they had all passed through, 
this was indeed something to be proud of. 

After several comparatively uneventful voyages 
Rannie was appointed to the Para, brig, under the 
command of a fine old man, who always alluded to him- 
self as in the third person as James Cooper, or " The 
Old Man ; " he was eccentric, but highly respected, and 
had a habit of soliloquising quite audibly. Although 
enormous profits were made out of the labour traffic 
some of the vessels were so badly provisioned and fitted 
out by unscrupulous companies and their agents that 
many of them reached their destination in a starving 
condition, and not a few were obliged to return to the 
port of departure. It was quite a common practice to 
hand up goods over one side of a vessel, get them signed 
for, and bundle them over the other side. Against these 
malpractices Rannie set a determined front with the 
approbation of the Government. In this he was whole- 
heartedly backed by the officers of the Para. 

The vessel set sail, and after touching at several places 
reached Buka Island, on the extreme north of Bougain- 
ville. By some clerical error thirty returns were booked 
for this island, whereas only two belonged to it. The 



308 TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

mistake was pointed out to the " Old Man," but he 
obstinately refused to alter his course to accommodate 
the other twenty-eight, and so only two returns were 
landed, the others naturally objecting to being marooned 
on an unknown shore. The warriors here were a fine, 
wild, picturesque lot of men, and Rannie was anxious 
to obtain a photograph of a group. He set up his 
photographic apparatus and explained the working 
to the two returns, who in turn explained it, satisfactorily 
as Rannie thought, to the others ; but to his surprise, 
when he placed his head under the focussing cloth, he 
saw nothing but their heels in the air, and the after parts 
of a mob of naked savages in full flight for the bush. 

He was so surprised and absorbed in the strangely 
ludicrous scene on the focussing plate of the camera 
that it was some time before he could recover himself to 
pay attention to the shouts of his men to look after his 
own safety and seek the shelter of the boats. Instead 
of doing this he came from under the cloth, and held up 
his hands to the natives as a sign that he meant them no 
harm. When the savages took fright and made for the 
bush, the two returns rushed down to the boats, afraid 
of the next move of their countrymen. After a while 
they came back, and very reluctantly their savage 
countrymen ventured cautiously down from the scrub. 
But no persuasion of any sort could again induce them 
to line up in front of the camera, which they thought was 
a gun of some sort or else an infernal machine. 

Leaving Buka they landed returns at New Ireland. 
The weapons used by the natives are the spear, club, 
tomahawk and sling, but not the bow and arrow. They 
are wonderfully adept with the sling, hitting the mark 
at long distances. The clubs vary ; some are heavy 
and blunt like an elongated baton, others are broad and 
flat with sharp edges, while some have heavy balls at the 
head from which protrude sharp spikes two inches long. 



TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 309 

But the favourite weapon is the steel-headed tomahawk, 
into which is securely and neatly fixed a shaft of hard 
wood, beautifully polished, measuring from three and a 
half to four feet long. Their costume is conspicuous by 
its absence, unless a slight coating of paint or lime 
might be termed a costume. The patterns vary according 
to fancy ; some had the bones traced out in white lime, 
so that they presented the appearance of animated 
skeletons, but the style most in vogue appeared to be a 
five-fingered design, and might have been applied by a 
hand smeared with lime. The coiffure is elaborate ; 
each lock of hair is carefully straightened out, and a 
mixture of coco-nut oil and red clay or betel-nut is 
rubbed in, which gives it a fine brick-red colour, and is 
trained in thin corkscrew curls to fall over the forehead, 
and down the cheeks and neck. The teeth are stained 
black with a preparation of burnt iron- pyrites ; and 
to complete his costume, instead of a blackthorn the 
" New " Ireland dandy carries a sharp tomahawk to 
convince an opponent and emphasise an argument. 

At a place named Rahaloo, a few miles north of Cape 
Santa Maria, two women plunged into the water and 
tried to climb into the mate's boat, but he would have 
none of them. They, however, continued to follow the 
boat until their own men swam after them and forcibly 
hauled them out. Then peace was changed to strife. 
Some of the men would have killed the women, but 
others protected them. A fight ensued. Tomahawks 
and spears were brought into play, and the utmost 
excitement prevailed for some time, which infected 
even the boats' crews. But peacemakers intervened 
and saved the two women, though both were badly 
hurt 

Betel-nut chewing is universal in most Pacific Islands, 
but in the Santa Cruz group it appears to have a 
sudden check, while in the Torres, Banks and New 



310 TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

Hebrides groups it is quite unknown. But in these 
places the one vice is supplanted by another, that of 
" Khava," an intoxicating preparation which appears 
to affect, not the brain, but the limbs, completely 
paralysing them for the time being. 

Beautifully-modelled canoes, capable of holding from 
ten to fifty persons, are built by these people. After the 
seasoned planks are adzed, scraped, and smoothed with 
sand they are bound together by sinnet through holes 
bored in the wood, and caulked with a preparation of 
pitch which sets as hard as cement. 

Further north lies the Gerrit Denny group, of which the 
scenery in its beauty defies description ; the natives are 
apparently quiet and friendly, but not to be trusted, while 
at one of the villages called Nolam, Rannie was called 
upon to adjudicate upon a knotty point. Two returns, 
a man and a woman, had married while in Queensland, 
and a child had been born. On reaching their native 
region they must part for ever, for although their native 
places were separated by only a small expanse of sea, 
each would be killed and eaten by the relatives of the 
other. But who was to take the child ? Rannie decided 
that the woman was the natural guardian, but the father 
vowed he would gain possession of the child. On the 
day of departure the vessel was surrounded by canoes, 
and each member of the crew was occupied with the 
work of getting the vessel under way, when a commotion 
on the port side of the ship attracted Rannie's attention, 
and he saw the father making for the bulwarks with the 
child in his arms, while his friends covered his retreat. 
But the desperate woman broke through the ring, and 
seizing the child buried her sheath-knife between the 
ribs of the man, then took refuge in the cabin. His 
comrades hurried the wounded man into the canoe and 
made for the shore. The incident passed without much 
comment, although some of the men wished to land the 



TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 811 

woman and child, which would indeed have ended the 
matter so far as she was concerned. 

One of the principal traders told Rannie that in this 
part of New Ireland the natives assemble once a year in 
thousands from many parts of the country and engage 
in a battle or several battles lasting over days. Some are 
killed, but not many. The vanquished return home to 
be upbraided by those who were left at home, while the 
victors remain to eat the bodies of the few who have 
been killed, and to relate the deeds of valour they have 
individually performed. 

The last of the returns for these parts was landed at a 
village in the St. George's Channel, and the recruiter 
bought a large boar pig, which was lashed to a sapling by 
its fore and hind legs. It was deposited on the deck and 
forgotten. Some time elapsed, when suddenly there was 
a commotion on deck, the natives scattering and 
making for places of safety, for the boar had broken his 
lashings. Rannie and some others climbed on the rail, 
but not so the poor " Old Man." He was caught from 
behind in the alley-way between the deck-house and the 
bulwarks. His legs went from under him, and he sat 
down on the pig's back, and was carried some distance. 
The pig then paid attention to the man at the wheel, 
who, promptly leaving the ship to steer her own course, 
made a bound for the top of the deck-house. The " Old 
Man" made tracks for the general cabin, but the pig, 
catching sight of him, continued the chase. When 
Rannie went to the rescue, revolver in hand, he found 
the pig with his fore-feet on the table snorting applause 
to the captain as he danced about the liveliest sailors' 
hornpipe of his life, all the time shouting for someone 
to come and relieve him by shooting the unclean beast. 
The pig made for Rannie, who eluded the charge by 
jumping again on the rail, and the wild-boar hunt on the 
Parous deck came to an end, as he grunted his last with 



312 TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

half a dozen bullets in his carcase, from about as many 
revolvers, fired from the strategical points of the rail 
and the roof of the deck-house. The " Old Man " had a 
nasty cut on his leg, but he was quite proud of his 
acrobatic feat in getting from the deck to the top of the 
cabin table in record time. 

Owing to the obstinacy of the " Old Man " the vessel 
was steered too far from land, and so missed the influence 
of the land breezes, and for an entire month they drifted 
about at the mercy of the currents, varying the time by 
reading and catching sharks. After drifting into the 
neighbourhood of the Admiralty Islands, they reached 
the landing-place of the last batch of returns in the St. 
George's Channel. The "Old Man" had often been 
twitted by the younger men for his cautious avoidance 
of the shore, but now he showed his reckless disregard 
of all warnings by running the vessel full tilt on to the 
beach, where she fell over on her starboard side. Kedges 
with stout cables were taken out, but the ropes were cut 
by the reef, and the kedges lost. The natives gave 
friendly assistance, but without avail. The stores were 
landed under a guard, the ballast thrown overboard, 
and as much of the fresh water as could be spared was 
pumped out. Then the two whale-boats were lashed 
together, and on them was formed a deck or platform. 
On this the starboard anchor was lowered with as much 
chain as the boats would ciarry, and the anchor and gear 
dropped in deep water. When all was ready the final 
and mighty effort was made. Natives shoved the bows 
with poles from the land, canoes tugged at two lines, the 
windlass strained at the anchor chain, and the vessel 
started and moved, and finally, with a grating, tearing 
noise floated once again into deep water. Meantime the 
" Old Man " had been an indifferent spectator, with a look 
of placid resignation on his rubicund countenance, and 
when night fell he retired to his cabin leaving orders 



TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 313 

that he should be called when the vessel floated ! The 
stores were reshipped and under a steady breeze a course 
was set for Blanche Bay, New Britain, to take in ballast 
and make necessary repairs. 

After leaving Blanche Bay, and touching at various 
islands, they reached the Bougainville Straits, where 
they experienced a remarkable phenomenon. While 
sailing over a very calm sea, rippled only by a gentle 
breeze, they were suddenly surrounded by a seething 
boiling sea that leaped in pyramid-shaped waves for 
hundreds of yards around, or as far as the eye could see. 
The surface of the sea had the appearance of a huge, 
boiling cauldron and the noise made by the breaking 
sea-bubbles was almost deafening. Some thought the 
phenomenon was caused by the meeting of opposing 
tides and currents, others that it arose from a submarine 
disturbance. Rannie has twice witnessed similar effects, 
which did not last in either case for more than an hour, 
but while it did last the ship had no steerage way, but 
twisted and turned and behaved in a most erratic 
manner. 

At Simbu, a deeply laid plan to ambush the crew and 
kill them was engineered by a notoriously bad character 
named " Paddy." The plot was foiled, and " Paddy " 
was afterwards hanged by the commander of a man-of- 
war for the murder of a trader. 

A month was spent in cruising along the coast of 
San Christoval, but the natives were very wild and 
shy. The men wore no clothing and the women but 
little. Both men and women had their legs and arms 
profusely decorated with bracelets, armlets, and bangles, 
while round their waists and necks they had belts and 
necklets made of native money. Their hair, which is 
allowed to grow very long, is frizzed out all round the 
head till it resembles a large mop. In this mop of hair 
they stick fancy combs, and wooden skewers inlaid with 



814 TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

mother-of-pearl. The men wear small white shells in a 
circlet round the forehead, while both men and women 
drill a hole through the tip of the nose, and in the hole 
they insert a long sharp spike made from the large clam- 
shell, which projects about four inches, with a point like 
a needle. 

As a race, the natives of San Christoval are entirely 
different from the people of Guadalcanar. They are 
small, light-complexioned and resemble very closely 
the natives of Malayta. They are quite the Malay type. 
They have always been considered very treacherous, 
and have a mania for ambushes and for attacking 
people without the slightest warning. The Taboo house 
in Makira village is quite a show place. In it are kept 
the state and war canoes, and in it repose the bones of 
the illustrious dead. The bones of chief and headmen 
are preserved and placed inside the skin of some large 
fish which has been prepared and dried for the purpose — 
generally a porpoise or a shark. After this it is nicely 
painted and placed at rest on a shelf. 

The state and war canoes are beautifully symmetrical 
models of what a fast sailing craft should be, and are 
handsomely decorated with pretty designs in mother-of- 
pearl, and festooned with tassels of variously dyed flax 
and grasses. The paddles are made from a light but very 
tough wood, and as they are sharpened to a point at the 
blade, they can be used as weapons of offence. They 
have hideous-looking demons stained into them in red 
and black dyes. 

A practical joke quite destroyed all chance of recruit- 
ing from this quarter. Two old chiefs were being shown 
over the vessel ; they expressed their wonder and admira- 
tion at everything, until, coming to the cannon, they 
expressed a desire to see it fired. When everything 
was ready some one mischievously suggested that they 
should stand on it as it was fired. They mounted the 



TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 315 

cannon, and held on to each other's shoulders. When it 
was discharged there was an old bush chief lying on 
each side of it on his back with his feet in the air. They 
soon regained their feet, and with a yell and a bound 
they were over the side and swimming for the shore. 
When they reached it they bolted along the beach, every 
now and then looking over their shoulder and giving 
forth a yell. Their followers were not far behind them. 

At Savo there is a breed of poultry which deposits 
eggs in the sand by thousands. The sand is fine and 
loose, and the young boys burrowed down three feet and 
more into it and brought up a large number. Each egg 
is about the size of a turkey's, and is a brownish colour. 
They are very palatable although somewhat stronger 
than a hen's egg in flavour. Casks and every available 
receptacle were used to store them in. The women 
cooked the eggs in a peculiar way in the hot springs. 
They doubled or sewed together some large banana or 
plantain leaves, and into them broke the eggs, and 
mixed with them grated coco-nut and a small quantity 
of salt water. This mixture they beat up with a stick 
until the ingredients were well mixed together. They 
then placed it in a boiling spring until it became as firm 
as cheese. Rannie frequently ate it and relished it well. 
This delicacy is generally made from twelve to eighteen 
inches in circumference, and from two to three feet long. 

At intervals during his walks Rannie met with poles 
stuck in the ground with a human head or skull on the 
top of each. Savo has always been the chief centre in 
in those parts of the head-hunters. Every man he met 
was armed with the long-handled tomahawk, and had a 
basket-work shield on his left arm. They are of the 
same breed as the Guadalcanar men, mostly tall and 
very dark. Their heads are shaved and they wear wigs. 
Many of the wigs are made from their own hair, and 
bleached white with lime. Those who do not wear their 



316 TREACHEROUS TRIBES OF OCEANIA 

own hair have wigs made from a fine white fiax. The 
men wear a loin-cloth, and the women short grass skirts, 
similar to those worn by the Ambrym women in the 
New Hebrides group. 

The cruise having now been a long one it was decided 
to make for Queensland after touching at Guadalcanar, 
especially as the "Old Man" had had quite enough of 
the Labour Traffic. It was his first experience, and he 
solemnly vowed it should be his last. 

[The information contained in these chapters has been 
derived from Mr. Douglas Rannie's book My Adventures 
Among South Sea Cannibals, by kind permission of the 
author.] 



INDEX 



Abeibera. Well of. 100 

Adrar of the Iforas, 100 

Mpvornis ingens, 212 

Africa, state of the interior of, 114 

African Napoleon, an. 171 

Ahnet, WeUs of. 107 

Akalonga. Cape, 156 

" Alligator stomach." 60 

Alligators on the Chaco, 68 

Amana, a curious village, 276 

Ambergris, 32 

Animal life in New Guinea, 226 

Ant- eater, the, 70 

Ant-hUls, 214 

Antananarivo, 177 

Antelope pit, in an, 169 

Arabs in Central Africa, 123 

Atoeka R„ 266 

Aye-aye, the. 184 

BalcBua Mysticetus, 17 

Balcciioptera, 18 

Batetela rebels. 159 

Bees. Malagasy. 203 

Betel nuts, 309 

Bioto Creek. 261 

Bird life in New Guinea, 226. 235 

Birds, 194, 198, 206, 208 

Birds of Madagascar, 191 

Birds of Paradise, 246 

Black ants. 201 

" Blackbirders," 285 

Blow-holes of whales, 34 

Blow-pipe, a Malagasy. 190 

" Blowing up " a whale. 24. 28 

Blue whale, 35 

Boiling sea, a, 313 

Bola. the, 70 

Boma. 153 

Boot-maker, an Eskimo, 40 

Bougainville, 287 

" Bound-by-blood " custom, 214 

Brawls, village. 229 

Bride, a youthful. 164 

Bridge, an awkward. 213 

Bridge of creepers, a, 253 

Bridge, a native, 169 

Brigands of the Sahara, 107 

Buffalo, a wounded, 121 

Buffalo. 158 

Buka Is.. 307 

Bull fighting. 209 

Bullocker. a 179 

Bullocks' horns. 208 

Burial alive for witchcraft. 161 

Burial customs. Indian, 86 

Burn Murdoch. Mr,. 19 

Buttons, precious, C6 



Cabbage tree. the. 281 

Caen Is.. 289 

Camels. 96. 101 

Cannibalism, 160, 224 

Canoes, New Guinea, 225 

Canoes, well-modelled, 310 

Case of a whale, the, 33 

" Cash," 115 

Chaco, description of the, 63 

Chameleons, 201 

Character of the Indians, 91 

Children, Eskimo, 40 

Cod-fishing, 54 

Coleopterous larV89, 262 

Cooking blubber. 34 

Courageous "friend," 170 

Couscous. 102 

Crabs, curious. 182 

Crocodile, desperate fight with a. 273 

Crocodiles. Madagascar, 186, 215 

Cutting up a whale, 32 

Deke, 167 

Delava B,., 280 

Desolate Plateau, 162 

Dinawa, 263 

Double murder, a, 252 

Dreadnought, the, 240 

Duel, a, 133 

Dutch New Guinea, 220 

Earthquake, an, 270 

Eggs, a treat of. 268 

Bkeikei, 268 

El Gran Chaco, 57 

Elephants. 135 

Epa. native houses, 261 

Erromango, 303 

Eskimos, characteristics of, 37. 41 

"Ethel," Camels' food, 104 

Etiquette when drinking, 163 

Execution of Poit, 80 

Fauna of Madagascar, 190 

Feasts, Indian periodic, 90 

Fights and festivals in New Guinea, 186 

Filanjdna, the. 180 

Finner whale, 35 

Fish. Madagascar. 184. 209 

Fisher and fish, a reversal, 164 

Fishing on the Chaco. 68 

Flora, Madagascar. 183, 186, 190 

Flowers of Labrador, 39 

Food, scarcity of, 279 

Foxes. Madagascar, 189 

Forests, Labrador, 51 

Foyn, Capt. Svend, 18 

Frozen sea, a, 39 



317 



318 



INDEX 



Game. 131 

Game laws, native, 172 

Game pit. a. 141 

Game trap, a huge. 137 

Gao, 94 

Gar-fish. 266 

Gerrit Denny Is., 290 

Good News, the. 130 

Government Agent, a. 285 

Governors, a contrast in, 216 

Granaries. Madagascar. 187 

"Great Erg." the, 110 

Grubb. Barbrooke. 57, 75. 88 

Guerbas or water-skins. 107 

Gun or swivel cannon, whaling. 20 

Hall Sound, 274 

Harpoon, Eskimo, 49 

Harpoons. whaUng, 20, 29 

Hastening a departure, 280 

Hawser for whaUng. 18. 27 

Haywood. Capt.,.94 

Head of a whale, the, 33 

Heat of the Sahara. 97 

Hebron, 43 

Hemp smoking, 160 

Henricksen, Adolpho, 85 

Hippopotami, 131 

Hippopotamus hunt, a. 143 

Hivondrona, 181 

Hoggars, the, 107 

Hore. Capt., 113 

Hornbills. 226 

Houses, Malagasy, 189, 192. 195 

Horas. the, 192, 195 

Hura, fishing village, 266 

Hurricane, a. 303 

Hut-building. 269 

Huts. New Guinea. 222 

Button, Dr.. 37 

Hj^enas, 157 

Ifora Tuaregs, 98 

Iglos. Eskimo, 54 

Imbelram. Wells of, 108 

In Ouzel, 101 

Indian of the Chaco, the, 65 

Indian village, an, 62 

Insalah. 109 

Insects. 195. 199, 200-1 

Insect life in New Guinea, 227 

Insect pests in Labrador, 54 

Intermediary and peacemaker, 166 

Inundations, 241, 242, 247 

*' Irish stew," a curious, 159 

Iron in Madagascar. 203 

Iwaka R.. 246 

Jaguar, the. 70 
Jerry and Julius, 41 
Johnston, Sir H., 143 

Kafulu, trouble with Chief, 270 

Kakungu. Chief. 148 

Kamiu-a E., 244 

Kanakas, 285 

Kapar^. E.. 230 

Kebea. a boy's adventurous iourney to, 274 

Khava, 310 

Kidal. 98 

Kikungulu. Chief. 160 



Kikwit. 168 

"Kilangozi " or head porter, 117 

Kilmesakthlapomap, 59 

Kimputu insect, the, 156 

Kinshasa, 153 

Kisai. 163 

Kwilu. Chief. 163 

Labrador, a dark journey in. 4S 

Labrador, the charm of. 37 

Lace plant, the. 187 

Lagoons. Madagascar. 182 

Lamba. the. 188 

Lancing a whale. 20. 31 

Leeches. 227, 262 

Lemurs. 205 

Leopards. 145, 156 

Leopold ville, 155 

Lions, African. 123, 157, 158 

Locusts, 192 

Lip-plugs, or labrets. 155 

" Litham " of the Tuaregs, 99 

Livingstone, 125 

Lizards. 201 

Luano. 166 

Luchima. E., 170 

Madagascar, travelling in, ISl 

Madui, trouble at, 275 

Mafulu, 279 

Malagarasi, E., 124 

Malayta, 299 

Malikolo, 294 

Man-traps, 167 

Masai warriors, 138 

Matrimonial mediation, 176 

" Mauja," 45 

Mavai, Chief, 261 

Mechi, Chief, 72 

Mgunda-Mkali plateau, 121 

Mimika E., 220, 225 

Mirambo, 122 

Mediation, arduous, 174 

Medicine-man, Swann's adventure with a, 

135 
Medicine, 141 
" Mehari." the. 99 
" Modern whales," cutting up, 19 
Morning Star, the, 115 
Mosquitoes. 115 
Moths, 199 
Motor launch, fate of Eawling's, 247. 256, 

257 
Mponda, Chief, 137 

Murder, attempted, of Mr. Tor day, 161 
Murder, compensation for, 275 
Murder of Grubb, attempted, 77 

Narwhal, the, 35 
Native dress, Grubb's. 61 
Native wireless, 265 
Neantamama, 60 
Natives of New Guinea, 223 
Needles, an epidemic of, 84 
New Ireland. 308 
Nomads of the Sahara, 95 
Nord Capper, a. 26 

Orchid, a perfect. 265 
Ordeals in Madagascar, 216 
Ostentatious display, 164 



INDEX 



319 



Ostrich hunting, 69 
Otok, the, 53 
"Oueds," 101 

Paddlers, novel plan to secure, 155 

Papuan ridges, 274 

Papuan, simplicity and guile of the, 238 

Paraguay E,., 57 

Parimau, 228, 244, 247, 248 

Peccaries, 70 

Photography under difficulties, 108 

Pig hunt, a great, 296 

Pigs, value of, 294 

" Pirate " Martin, 306 

Poison, Tangena, 183 

Poisoning, Grubb's escape from, 61 

Porters, 115, 283 

Poit, 74 

Port Moresby, 259 

Practical joke, a, 315 

Pratt, Mr., 259 

Prawns, large, 263 

Pre-historic Madagascar, 212 

Products, whale, 19 

Punza, village, 162 

Pygmies, New Guinea, 231, 233, 248 

Python in a fowl house, 158 

Quisoolese, Chief, 300 

Bain in New Guinea, 244 
Eannie, Mr., 237 
Bawling, Capt., 220 
Becruiting vessels. 287 
" Bed Head," old, 84 
Beindeer hmiting, 52 
Eevenge, a horrible, 150 
Bhea, the, 69 
Biacho Fernandez, 59 
Bice culture, 197, 209 
Bice plain, a vast, 194 
Bight whale or Bowhead, 17 
Biver hog, the Malagasy, 202 
Bofia palm, the, 188 
Bobbers of the Sahara, 106 
Bobbery, attempted, 257 
Borquales, 30 
BumaUza, 126 

Saadani, 116 

Sago palm grubs, 224 

Sahara, the, 95 

Saharan flora, 104 

St. Ebha, the, 19 

St. George's Channel. 311 

St. John's Is., 289 

St. Joseph B., fish in the, 264 

Salving a treaty, 147 

San Christoval, 313 

Sandstorms, 103, 105 

Santa Cruz. 298 

Santo, 292 

Savo, 315 

Scenery of Madagascar, 213 

Scenery of New Guinea, 220, 226, 253 

Scrub-itch, 262 

Seal hunting, 48, 53 

Sheep of the Sahara, 103 

Shepherd Group, the, 291 

Shire B., adventure on the, 137 

Sibree, Dr.. 177 



Sihanaka tribe, 207 

Silkworms, 198 

Simbu. 313 

Simplicity of the Eskimo, 40 

Sinerago, 299 

Slave caravans, 119 

Slave trade in Africa. 114 

Sledge dogs, 42, 45 

Sledge, Eskimo. 42 

Snakes. 65. 139. 184. 201. 227 

Snatch-block, the. 28 

Snow house, building a, 46 

Soldier-crabs, 284 

Sperm or Cachalot, 17 

Spermaceti, 17 

" Spheres of Influence," 143 

Spiders, 198, 204 

Spiders* webs, 282 

Squalor of Ujiji, 126 

Stampede of natives, a, 230, 243 

Sting-ray fish, 69 

Stockade, storming a, 149 

Stockaded villages, 123 

Stoker, a plucky. 154 

Swann, Mr., 113 

Taboo house, a, 314 

Taboo, removing a, 141 

Tademayt, plateau of, 110 

" Tailing up," 25, 29 

Tailor, Eskimo, an. 39 

Tamatave. 179 

Tanezrouft. the. 100 

Tanganyika. L.. 125 

Tanna, 290 

Taoundert, well of, 101 

Tea-drinking by the Arabs, lOO 

Tenrec, the, 205 

" The Old Man," 307 

Thieves, expert, 290 

Thieves, Chaco, 60 

Thiagnasinkinmith, 61 

Thunderstorms, 195 

Tidikelt, the, 110 

Timbuctu, 94 

Timissao, wells of, 104 

Tinderan, Avells of, 97 

Tip-pu-Tib. 126 

Tobacco, Indian, 67 

Tom, tragic end of, 130 

Tongoa, 303 

Tongue of whale, 36 

Torday, Mr. L.. 153 

Tortures by virabs, 155 

Trade goods in New Guinea, 235 

Tragedy, a, 134 

Transport in Africa, 115, 118 

Travelhng in the Chaco, 71, 7» 

Treachery of Poit, 76 

Tree house, a. 276 

Trickiness of the African, 119 

Triton shells. 182 

Trout fishing. 53 

Tuaregs, 98 

Typhus at Hebron, 44 

Ugogo, plains of, 120 

Ujiji, 125 

Unrest and disorder, 148 

Vegetation, New Guinea, 229, 246, 278 



320 



INDEX 



Villages. Hova, 192 

Villages, old. in Madagascar, 200 

Voyage, a hazardous. 147 

Wagenya paddlers, 155 
Wagogo. the, 121 
Waiiji. the. 127 
Wakatimi. 221 
Walrus hunting, 51 
Walungu, the. 129 
Wambirimi. 249 
Wasps. 197. 272 
Wataikwa. 245 
Water in the Sahara. 95 
Water-carrying at Epa, 267 
Waterspouts, 129 
Wavinza, the, 124 
Weaver-birds. 206 



Welcome, an unexpected, 221 

Whale food. 35 

Whalebone, value of, 17 

Whales. 32 

Whaling steamer, the, 18 

Widow's " weeds," 234 

Wild fowl, Malagasy, 208 

Witch doctors of the Chaco, 82 

Wives, playful, 170 

Wives, treatment of New Guinea, 229 

Wizards of the Chaco, 59, 83-85 

Wolverine, the, 52 

Woman, an emancipated, 295 

Yongo, Chief, 171 
Young Dick, the, 299 

Zanzibar. 113 



UJilliam Brendon & Son B^ 
1920 



MAR 



'.i-^na U rv^^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 726 001 7il 








